Speedster and Spymaster: An Unlikely Love Story
by Rosy the PIAT-teer
Summary: An unlikely duo finds love during their time together in the school of St Gloriana Girls College, will their relationship stand the test of time and fate? Jump in as these two dodge bullets and try to unravel the red string that bounds them together. Rated T for Tea and obligatory "Girls und Panzer is owned by Actas and all the OCs are created by me and others.
1. Prologue: Alumni Homecoming

**AN:** Heyo! A little chat before we get down to business. This fanfic was inspired by two things. The first being a chapter from Motto Love Love Sakusen Desu, specifically **Chapter 38: It's tracking Darjeeling-sama** to be exact. I know the canonicity of the manga as a whole is hotly debated but I find it funny nonetheless. The next one is a short Girls und Panzer fanbook from Danbooru, **Greener Grasses**, which features an AssHip love story too. This story isn't necessarily a recreation of any of the two but uses them as a benchmark to sail the AssHip ship into the sunset. Well, that's enough rambling from me and see ya again at the end of this chapter.

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**Prologue**

**Alumni Homecoming**

**Yokohama, Japan**

"Good morning, this is your captain speaking, we have just landed at Haneda Airport in the city of Yokohama. Today is the 20th of April on our current year and local time is 9:30 in the morning, Japanese Standard Time. Temperatures outside are a mild 28C with clear skies and a low chance of rain in the evening. You may begin to leave the plane once the flight crew says so and again thank you for flying British Airways and we hope you enjoy your trip," the plane's intercom system announced.

A blonde girl in an aisle seat stood up at the announcement and took her luggage and umbrella from the overhead compartment. It had been a boring 13 hour non-stop flight from London, with no one to accompany her except old Chaucer and his masterpiece. Except for small talks with the little girl who sat to next to her and the flight attendants, she had little to no human interaction onboard the flight, which gave her more than ample amount of time to wrap her head around the prose and poetry of the stories.

Walking down the exit stairs, she was delighted to finally set foot on land again and began made her way to the terminal. However, she was caught off guard when a hand suddenly reached from behind and ragged breathing reached her ear.

"Su...su...success is not final, failure is not fatal-" a voice that belonged to a girl of her age timidly said, uttered with a wild mix of panic and anxiety.

She turned around to see a girl dressed in the uniform of her youth, wearing under eyeglasses that gave view to a warily look of someone who anxiously waiting for a response, which she immediately gave, "-it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill, right?"

The new arrival could only force herself to nod and said, "Ma'am, may I request that you follow me?"

"Sure," she replied, gingerly following the girl, jet lag making her head spin like a top. The girl in front of her briskly turned a corner, and she followed suit, pleasantly surprised by what she saw parked around the corner.

She was expecting one of the school cars to fetch her, at the very least, or one of the Westland Lysander liaison aircraft if they still have those. But there's no way she would have thought that they'll send in a full-fledged tank.

And not just any tank, it was _her tank_, _her_ _steed_, _her_ _mount_, _her_ _black beauty_. Its olive green paint job looked brand new and its 75mm gun looked as deadly as ever, protruding from the flat riveted mantlet of the turret

"Wha-ho-how is this possible?" she exclaimed. "I thought the alumni association sold it off after I left!" She scrutinised the entire length of the tank, taking it all it, lest it was just a dream and she would wake up back in the plane.

"They did, except we bought it back Ma'am." her guide managed to smile, probably surprised at the sudden change in the demeanour of the personality of the girl she's chauffeuring.

The blonde climbed the tank quickly, with efficiency only a veteran can possess. "I assume you're my driver for today?" she asked, opening the commander's hatch and hopped down the hatch "Sorry, I didn't happen to catch your name?"

"Ruhuna ma'am... My name is Ruhuna," the brunette replied as she climbed and entered her own hatch.

She raised her eyebrows, _Darjeeling's personal driver eh?_ Meteor engines purred to life and she inhaled the smell of the motor oil and grease, two scents that will forever put her at ease.

The tank slowly inched forward, unable to fully spread its wings, for fear of cracking up the asphalt it drove on. People going on their daily lives couldn't help but look at the rare sight of a tank driving on the streets. Even motorists had to double-take on their rearview mirror just to make sure that that there was indeed an armoured fighting vehicle barreling down behind them.

The Japanese spring wind blew at her face, driving off the last verges of the exhaustion still inside her. Her long blonde hair flew elegantly behind her as the tank begun to pick up speed. She momentarily closed her eyes and opened it after hearing some familiar additions to the symphony of engines around her.

Trailing them, were four BSA M20 motorcycles which sped up to take positions on each side of the tank, serving as convoy escorts. The BSA M20 was one of the longest-serving motorcycles in the British army, being used for anything from liaison to dispatch work, becoming a staple of Gloriana couriers.

At this, her eyebrows raised again. Darjeeling, being her flamboyant self, spared no expense on her homecoming.

After a bit of gridlock in an intersection, she closed the hatch and went about re-examining the inner workings of the vehicle, from its ever so useful periscopes to the exhaust vent, which helped keep its crew members safe from the toxic fumes made by firing the gun.

She was surprised to find that the ammo stowage she was sitting on was filled to the brim with a mix of AP and HE, although the latter wasn't used much in tank combat, at least in her command. She was pretty sure those who worked hard to include the HE capability in this tank's gun would be disappointed in them.

From the commander's viewports, she watched as the armoured vehicle made its way to the ship's gangway, where its speed and manoeuvrability made them ascend fast and easy, not needing the ship's built-in tow hooks for their team's heavy tanks

A sudden loud noise outside made her open the hatch, she was then subsequently blinded and deafened by what she saw and heard. Dozens of people lined the streets of the carrier, cheering as they saw their idol, some were holding banners welcoming her. The flash of cameras blinked every second, snapping figments of her that will be forever frozen in time.

Students both old and new were amongst the crowd, waiting patiently for their schoolmate to come along. And now their patience was well-rewarded as they saw the convoy passed through, its commander merrily waved at the crowd as it went by. Union Jacks flew alongside the school's colours as the motorcade went by.

After traversing the carrier's streets, even almost having a near-collision with a speeding Crusader going the other way, their tank finally reached their destination and she quickly hopped out of the tank, still carrying her luggage and her trusty umbrella. She looked down at her clothes, a bespoke black suit and pants, which she had tailor-made back in England. She checked if there are any wrinkles on her suit, straighten her hair to remove any trace of her long journey and glanced at the Victorian building in front of her.

She looked behind one last time, as her Cromwell tank is being driven back to the garage. She finally turned her head back to the building. After years of not seeing it, she smiled to herself. The Tea Garden still looked as she remembered it, elegant as ever, looking over rows and rows of neatly trimmed bushes and its large arched windows gave a nice view of the ocean.

She started walking towards the entrance, her Oxford shoes clicked against the cobblestone path. She was trying her best not to run. _Take it slowly_, she said to herself. After all, after many years, she, Earl Grey, has finally returned home.

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**AN: **That's the end of the chapter, hope y'all like this and if you do, don't be shy to follow this story. Criticism is welcomed and is a sought after resource. Well till next time.

**Edit: (05/22/20)** Fixed up some grammatical errors and patched up a few sentences

**Edit: (06/28/20)** Massive proofreading session, weeding out the usual errors and fixed up some continuity errors.


	2. Chapter 1: Elevenses

**AN: **_Holly-molly! Two chapters in one night? What sorcery is this?__!_ Well, you could say this one is a long time coming but regardless here it is and yeah I'll make a big announcement at the end of this chapter, so stay tuned!

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**Chapter 1  
****_Asa-no_** **Tea Time**

**Still in Yokohama, Japan**

The clock on the mantelpiece struck 10:15 AM and her guest of honour still hadn't arrived. Underneath her calm and collected demeanour, Darjeeling was panicking inside, as she hastily thought through every detail in the last minute.

In a few minutes, her predecessor would walk through the door and she couldn't think what her mentor would have to say. Would she be praised or scolded?

_"Was sending Ruhuna to pick her up a good idea?"_

_"Did they follow the prescribed route by the city or did they take another way?"_

_"Why, oh why did the school's band have to be out today…"_

All these thoughts crossed her mind and made her brain hurt and her to worry more.

_"And oh for God's sake, where in the world is Rosehip again…."_

She stood up and went out to the Tea Garden's antechamber. The room was brightly lit by two chandeliers and a red carpet had been laid in preparation for the visitor.

A platoon of Gloriana Guards was on standby, serving as a guard of honour. Dressed smartly in red with their epaulettes and golden buttons, they flanked the carpet at both sides.

Darjeeling looked around the antechamber. The room was decorated with various art pieces from statues like a miniature replica of _Boudica and her Daughters _to paintings of the highest order, like the portrait of Saint Gloriana herself.

The decor wasn't exactly her idea, it was the collection of generations of Senshadou commanders and this had caused some unique additions. A commander obsessed with Egyptian history had commissioned a copy of the Rosetta Stone and placed it in the far corner of the room. Another one, majoring in Naval Studies, constructed 1:300 scale models of famous British warships like _HMS Warspite _and _HMS Hood_.

It was a longstanding tradition for commanders to commission or make a piece of artwork for future generations to admire and had been seen as one of the many ways they could leave their footprints in the school's history. Because of this, the unveiling of artwork had always garnered attention. She smiled and looked at the painting of _The Fighting Temeraire_ on the far wall. It was her work and she was extra proud since she painted the reproduction herself.

Some of the artworks installed have caused controversies like the replica of the _Eros Statue_ from Piccadilly Circus or even her mentor's bronze statue of Oliver Cromwell, the namesake of her favourite tank.

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts as the footwoman opened the door and the dozen guards stood to attention as another blonde woman entered the room.

The woman slowly approached and Darjeeling tried her best to keep her composure. "On behalf of the entire St Gloriana student body, welcome back, Earl Grey-sama!" she greeted, breaking the ice.

"Ahhhh Darjeeling, long time no see!" Earl Grey replied.

"It's nice to see you too," Darjeeling said, attempting a smile but failed miserably.

"Aren't you happy to see me?" her guest said with a frown.

"No, no, it's just that you haven't changed mu-" whatever she was saying was cut off as Earl Grey used an umbrella to raise her skirt up, revealing her panties for all too see, much to the embarrassment of everyone in the room.

"Still wearing your silk pantsu, aren't you Darjeeling?" Earl Grey laughed.

"Miss Earl Grey, not here please…" she begged. "S-shall I show you to the Tea room?"

"Lead the way." Darjeeling watched Earl Grey hand her coat to the footwoman, who immediately retreated, and now the two of them walked the length of the red carpet. The guards of honour, which had meticulously trained for ceremonies like this, raised their polished sabres and clicked it as they both pass.

"Oh, I almost forgot, the school has commissioned a bronze bust for your service to the college of St. Gloriana," Darjeeling said, finally recovering from the embarrassment earlier. She gave a signal to a girl who pulled up a curtain, revealing a bust resembling her guest of honour.

"I might have preferred iron – but bronze will do ... It won't rust." her visitor said, her words sounding familiar, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

Additional footwomen opened the double doors to the Tea Room and Darjeeling heard her companion whistled.

"A lot of things have changed here! I see you've been busy."

"Not quite, but I have enough on my plate to keep me preoccupied," Darjeeling lied. Her predecessors hadn't told her about the amount of paperwork the Senshadou Commander had to deal with and if it were not for her secretaries, she would have been swamped.

The decoration was minimalistic at most, with only a small round table, covered with a pristine white tablecloth with lots of room for cups and decorations. Surrounding the table were four red upholstered dining chairs, perfect for her, her guest and the rest of the _Noble Sisters_.

Already seated on a chair was her gunner, Assam, who jumped up in surprise as she led their visitor through the room. Meanwhile, her loader, Orange Pekoe, was already busy at work, mixing together a brew that would knock Earl Grey off her feet.

"Assam, it's been a while, how's your intelligence agency doing?" Earl Grey greeted, shaking the blonde's hand.

"Errrrr, Miss Earl Grey, it's supposed to be secret, you know... May I introduce to you Orange Pekoe." Assam embarrassingly gestured to the ginger-haired girl, who saved her from the awkwardness. Pekoe walked to Assam's side and made a small bow.

"Ah! Darjeeling speaks highly of you!" Earl Grey held out her hand. Both Darjeeling and her second in command blushed at this comment, which would be disastrous if taken out of context.

_So far, so good. Everything's going according to the plan. Orange Pekoe should offer her tea right about now._

"Why thank you, madam, would you like some tea?" Orange Pekoe said smoothly, as planned earlier.

"Absolutely, a cup of English Breakfast wouldn't be too much, eh?"

"Anything for you, Ma'am." Orange Pekoe went off to the brewing table in the corner, heating, the premade blend she mixed earlier.

"And remember, loose, not tea bags, okay?"

"Certainly madam!" the orange-haired loader acknowledged, albeit perplexed at the need to specify.

For a few minutes, the soft crackling of the room's fireplace and the ambient flow of conversation were the only noises that could be heard in the room. The tranquil atmosphere of the room calmed her down significantly, aided by the pleasant scents of an aroma diffuser in the corner.

The tea finally arrived with Orange Pekoe politely filling up their cups and settling down herself. Darjeeling watched as Earl Grey took a sip, at the same time, her hands, hidden under the table were balled in her knees, anxiously for what her mentor would say next.

"Blimey! This is better than anything I had in England!"

"Thank you very much, ma'am!" Her loader beamed and she relaxed too.

The scones and cakes in the tea stand were all made by Assam, whatever happened to the ones she baked? (_Maybe the two hogged it all to themselves, how rude,_)she thought as she buttered herself a crumpet.

"Who's the gal standing on the far wall over there?" Her guest asked, breaking her train of thoughts.

"Her name's Rukuriri and she's the current commander of the Matilda wing," Assam answered for her.

"Well, invite her to sit down with us, Pekoe dear, would you be so kind as to ask someone to get another chair."

Orange Pekoe did as she was requested, while Earl Grey made small talk with Rukuriri.

When Rukuriri had taken a seat, she heard her guest say. "You're quite something aren't you, brown hair, long braids, nice bosom-"

"Uhmmm Miss Earl Grey," Orange Pekoe interrupted. Rukuriri blushed and was now red as a poppy.

"Ah yes, I'm sorry, so Rukuriri, what do you think of the Matildas?"

"They're slow, cumbersome, under-gunned but the armour makes up for it-"

The room's double doors suddenly swung open, and a familiar pink-haired girl barged in.

"Sorry, I'm late!" the girl said, standing to attention, her uniform mercifully free of stains but the girl looked like she got dressed in a foxhole.

"Rosehip! Why on earth are you not on time?" Darjeeling looked her dead in the eye, her blood pressure slowly rising up.

"Now, now, no need to get angry on missy here, why don't you fetch yourself a seat and have a cup with us here?" Earl Grey chipped in, diffusing the potentially explosive situation before it went critical.

Rosehip went out of the room and half-carried/half-dragged another chair, creating a scratching noise that was painful to the ear but was mercifully over in a few seconds. "I was late because the tank I was driving fell into a ditch because I had to swerve to avoid an oncoming tank," she said as she sat down next to Earl Grey and used a silver teaspoon to slowly stirred the cup poured in advance by Orange Pekoe.

_Huh, she's on her best behaviour today, looks like the private lessons with Assam are finally paying off._

"You don't happen to drive a Crusader Mk. III, do you?" her visitor asked, lowering the knife she was using to spread clotted cream on her scone.

Rosehip wiped her mouth with the silk napkin before she answered the question. "I do and it's my favourite tank as well!" she finished, her eyes sparkling with glee. Beside her, Assam suddenly had a surly expression, her previously impassive face now broken by a frown.

_Oh bugger, this could be trouble._

Darjeeling thought, setting down her cup, as she prepared for the storm to come and was surprised when Earl Grey suddenly burst out laughing and started patting Rosehip on the back, causing the redhead to spill some of her tea.

"Jolly good driving skills, I must say," her guest of honour praised the redhead, who uttered a word of appreciation in return.

The clock on the mantelpiece chimed half-past ten and Darjeeling still has a lot of paperwork to address.

"I'm afraid I have other matters to attend to. If there is anything that we can do to make your stay here more enjoyable, please do tell."

"How about a ball?" Earl Grey suggested; a smirk on her face.

"No, that would be too much!" Darjeeling protested.

"Relax, I'm just pulling your horns, how about a match for old time's sake?"

"It's a bit impromptu but nonetheless possible."

_Well, there goes my entire schedule._

"Tell you what, I'll take Rosy here and you take Ruki and we'll have a little two on two match, how does that sound?"

"Splendid! Orange Pekoe, can you ring Vanilla's team and ask them to crew Miss Earl Grey's Cromwell for the meantime? Assam, call Ruhuna will you? Rukuriri, fetch your crew and tell the others to ready the tanks that will participate in the match and Rosehip, show Miss Earl Grey to her accommodations, please?"

A resounding _"Hai!"_ came from all four and they all split ways, with her guest of honour tailing her energetic sub-ordinate.

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**AN: **I can't postpone this much longer, I would like to thank my fellow authors who helped push me, er, I mean persuade me to write down this story. I can't list all of them but I'm thankful for all of them regardless. There's Sharky, for proofreading my work, Richie, M, Clarky and Erwin for the advice and all, and most importantly Shrimpy, who talked me into writing this in the first place and probably that dishwashing anime, anywho.

Oh, before I forget again, check out their respective stories here on FFN, give them all a good read and comment that I made you read them, muahahaha. Again any comments are appreciated and if you have any questions, ask away!

Who do you think will win the match? Will Rukuriri save the day? Will Rosehip get lost and drive off to India again? All of these will be answered by the next chapter, till then, _sayonara_!

**Edit****: (07/14/20)** Proofreading session continues grammatical errors here and there. Nothing too major but necessary work nonetheless. Please do tell if you spot any more errors so I can amend them.

**Edit: (08/30/20) **I think an apology is due after I realised that this chapter is in terrible shape, which had been graciously pointed out by Rihno, so thank you very much for that. I would also like to thank Sharky, whose proofreads help patched up the errors in the first place. I doubt this would be the end of proofreads but I hope this one would stand longer than the previous one did.


	3. Chapter 2: Getting To Know U

AN: So, I'm back! After a week of dealing with finals and other projects, I finally managed to finish this chapter up. This chapter also serves as a testbed for a different writing approach I experimented with, tell me what you think about it in the reviews and as always, see y'all at the end of the chapter and until then, farewell!

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**Chapter 2  
****Getting to know you**

**Now a few miles from Yokohama, Japan**

As the two of them set off, walking the length of lavishly decorated corridors inside the Tea Garden, past portraits upon portraits and treading lightly on the velvet carpet, the bells of Gloriana's Tiny Ben outside tolled the passing of another half-hour.

Rosehip couldn't help but be thrilled; she was up close and personal with her idol. She held her hero's personal articles gingerly, making sure not to drop them.

"Madam, it's an honour to escort you to your quarters!" she said beaming, her eyes slightly shut from the intense glare of the mid-morning sun coming through the arched windows.

"The honour is mine, Rosehip, isn't it?"

_She knows my name! Wait, till the others hear about this!_

She nodded and said, "Ma'am, may I speak up?"

"You're already speaking," the other replied, jokingly "Tell me, what's on your mind?"

She breathed deeply before speaking."It's just that I'm a big fan of yours. Can I get your autograph.'

Earl Grey laughed and Rosehip's heart dropped, as she prepared herself for the rejection to come next, something that didn't come as Earl Grey cut her misery by replying, "I would love to! Now, do you have a pen and paper with you?"

"Yup, let me just find it." She set down the luggage and the umbrella on the carpet then began to search for writing materials on her person.

"How did I manage to snag an admirer like you?" she heard the question thrown at her but she was starting to panic as she soon realized.

"Bloody hell, I don't have a pen and paper on me!" she swore before she could control herself. The next thing she knew was her blonde companion was again roaring with laughter.

"Is there something wrong, Miss Earl Grey?" she asked, quite sure was looking abashed.

"I remember when I was a first-year just like you, I was sent to detention for swearing out loud in English class. Now I understand you don't have a pen right?"

"Yeah, I'm very sorry, Madam!" Rosehip apologized, performing a full 90-degree bow

"There's nothing to be sorry for, will a kiss on the cheek do?" The blonde alumnus lewdly suggested, who silently manoeuvred herself to pin Rosehip against the wall.

She felt her cheeks warm-up and Rosehip knew she was blushing madly. "I-uh well, I kinda wan-yeah sure…" she trailed off.

Earl Grey smiled vivaciously and suddenly whipped out her white silk handkerchief and dapped it to her lips before she placed it in Rosehip's own pocket.

"Now, let's continue shall we?" Earl Grey had stepped out of the way and allowed her to break away from the wall.

She only managed a nod before she picked up the items of her "master" once again and continued their walk.

"By the way, what's your answer to my question earlier?" The alumnus asked, breaking the growing silence between them.

"Oh yeah, you're the reason why I started doing Senshadou in the first place! I watched the live broadcast of your semi-finals match on the 61st National High School Sensha-dō Tournament back when I was in my junior year," she replied, somewhat gaining her composure again.

"Ah, the one against Pravda. They made the mistake of bringing in their heavy tanks. They thought their IS-3s and ISU-152s would strike fear into our hearts but rather we used it to our advantage and used our nimbleness to make short work of their lumbering tanks. The two turned a corner and was greeted by a corridor lined with oak doors, each leading to a guest room.

"Ma'am-" Rosehip started, as she scanned the room plaque numbers of every door they passed.

"Please call me Earl Grey," the upper-class woman told her.

"Earl Grey-sama, why did you pick me and my crew to fight alongside you, you could have picked your successor, Darjeeling-sama. What if I'm not up to your standards, what if I cost you this match?"

The blonde sighed and said, "Do you know my nickname back then?"

"The Devil on the Cromwell, right?" Of course, it was right, she had read up everything she can find on her, including numerous articles in the school paper, _Gloriana Times_.

"Yes, and I didn't earn it by being indecisive, I've earned it by acting first and thinking later, and the results show themselves. If I can do it, I'm certain you can too."

"Even if I'm just a _commoner_?" she asked, remembering one of the many names she was called because of her upbringing.

"It isn't where you came from, it's where you're going that counts," she narrated.

_Now I know where Darjeeling-sama gets her obsession_.

"But Darjeeling-sama said I should be elegant at all times and I don't know how to!"

"Nonsense! You carried yourself earlier quite well." Earl Grey tried to reassure her.

_That's because there's __something on the line_

"But table manners doesn't necessarily translate into how I command my tanks!" Rosehip protested.

Earl Grey uttered a sigh. "I hate how the Alumni Association has pushed the image of elegance even for the school's Senshadou team. Elegance has no place on the battlefield. I've seen your previous match on the 63rd Senshadou semi-finals and it was a close match indeed. If only you had more cruiser tanks, you would have taken the objective first."

Rosehip nodded, remembering that fateful day, but instead of replying she realized they had reached her room. "Oh, here we are Earl Grey-sama, the Hyde Suite! Lovingly prepared by the Royal Maids, I hope it is up to your standards" she said, inserting the master key given to her by the Head Maid, Bohea.

The room was fit for the Queen herself, with its rose-coloured silk curtains, which covered a large window that gave the room's occupant an excellent view of the well-cared-for Gloriana Gardens. She was quite sure that the garden was in good hands because she herself got assigned to it multiple times as punishment by none other than her senpai, Assam-sama.

Rosehip placed her escortee's belonging on the four-poster bed, taking in the sight of the sumptuous furniture inside the room, and was about to take her leave, making her way to the door, when Earl Grey called out to her. "Young lady, don't leave just yet, I have something else to say." That made her pause as Earl Grey turned around and locked the oak door. At this note, Rosehip began to get nervous.

_They wouldn't do that, right?_

"For quite a long time, our Senshadou team has only been a speed bump for other schools like Kuromorime and Pravda in their quest for the cup." The former commander began, where she was going, Rosehip didn't know, but she listened nonetheless.

Earl Grey made her way to the window and parted the curtain, illuminating the room.

"But you, you have guts, we need more girls like you to raise St. Gloriana back into the pedestal she once held. You will have a future in this school's Senshadou team, I'm sure of it. Come!" She beckoned her closer to the cheval mirror on the corner, asking her to stand in front of it.

Standing in front of the mirror, she was reminded of the slight height difference between the two of them along with the fact, the way both of them were dressed. Earl-Grey-sama carried herself in the uniform with an air of confidence and looked the part of a confident Senshadou commander. She, on the other hand, looked like she got dressed in the dark, which was half-true, and was just now noticing mistakes in how she tucked in her skirt or the way she buttoned her collar. And without trying to appear obvious, tried to rectify these errors before it was too late.

"What do you see?" Earl Grey asked, looking at her using the mirror, scanning her and Rosehip immediately ceased in trying to fix her fashion errors.

"Uhh... I see myself and you as well, Earl-Grey-sama." She nervously replied.

"I see a young woman with potential, a young woman who's loyal, who could do what's she asked and who want to do something good with her life."

To say she was blushing would be an understatement, she was as red as the flower her name came from. Why would Earl-Grey-sama shower her with praises, does she require a favour of sorts?"

Earl Grey-sama cut her thoughts off by asking again, "You've seen the film _Trading Places_?"

"No."

"_My Fair Lady_?" She shooked her head.

"_Pretty Woman_?" She shooked her head once more.

"Alright, my point is the lack of a silver spoon set you in a certain path but you need to stay on it. If you are prepared to adapt and learn, you can transform."

"Oh, like in _A Christmas Carol_!" Rosehip replied.

"Ah, you're full of surprises. Yes, like in _A Christmas Carol_. Here's the plan…."

* * *

Rosehip had had the tank parked in an alley, which lay beside the main road. With the commander's hatch open, she and her driver sat outside the turret with their legs dangling inside, to prevent further overcrowding the already crowded turret. She was thinking about the hastily made plan Earl-Grey-sama and her had come up in that room when a question from her driver turned her attention back to her own crew, which had been with her from the very beginning and made her Senshadou experience both enjoyable and regrettable.

"How did the tea party go, by the way? Surely not, you didn't wet yourself in excitement, right?" Her driver, whose name was Roselle, quipped. Like Rosehip, she was a speed demon and it was like a match made in heaven like _Doritos_ and _Mountain Dew_ or hollandaise sauce on Eggs Benedict. The crazy speed made by their tank was only possible due to Roselle's expert handling of the controls and her ability to quickly shift gears.

The driver of their Crusader wore distinctive brown leather cavalry boots that looked ridiculous when paired with her brown coloured hair. With the tank stationary, Roselle could afford to be with them at the back, as she munched on some snacks stored in the various stowage bins inside the tank.

"Quiet now, I'm trying to sleep here. One more word from you and I'll shove these shells up your..." Rosemallow muttered, the loader of the tank's 6-pounder. A kind-hearted gal, affectionately nicknamed "Breadbasket" for her habit of bringing along and sharing freshly baked bread, courtesy of their family's bakery, during matches. The ginger head was also the one who decided to share tea with the Chaffee's crew during the match against Selection University, much to her own commander's protests. Right now, however, the girl was in a foul mood today after pulling an all-nighter the night before, her orange hair laid on the throw pillow she kept on her corner of the tank for emergencies like this.

"Ey, no fighting inside the tank, remember?" Rosehip scolded. The formalities of tank commander and crew in other St. Gloriana tanks were non-existent in their Crusader, after all, they were all first-years and everyone treated each other as peers. However, said formalities were observed outside the tank, lest they incur the wrath of Darjeeling.

"Oi, who replaced the soda here with apple juice?" she asked as she hopped down back inside to refill her cup. Another difference is that they modified the tank's built-in water heater system to be able to chill food and drinks with the help of some spare coolant and tubings from the garage. It had allowed them to store a wide variety of beverages from iced tea, to treats like ice cream and in today's case, soft drinks.

The modification hasn't been found out, partly because of her ingenuity and partly because they always bribed the inspector with a cold drink of her choice. Today, however, was her turn on deciding the tank's drink of choice and she was not all too happy on being cheated on it.

"Hmph, I did. You know how I hate those other drinks." her gunner, Rosemary, replied, before burying her nose once again on a book. She was the calm and collected one in the quartet, which was always been referred to as the _Rosebush_, an allusion to how all four of them had tea names that in one way or another related to the national flower of England. Despite being the most responsible person on board, she was also a tsundere and that made teasing her very enjoyable.

"Fine," Rosehip replied, pouring some juice in a porcelain teacup. Her relationship with the rest of them had always been a balance between love and hate. They had assisted her in her shenanigans before, like when they helped her cover-up an explosion caused by mounting a homemade engine into a Crusader but they could also be a pain in the arse, especially when they tease her about Assam-senpai.

_How would someone like Earl Grey lead a rowdy bunch like hers?_

It's a shame she had not been able to get her autograph earlier, it was really foolish of her, if only she had brought a pen with her, but what's done is done. Rosehip then remembered the hankie given to her earlier by the alumnus. It was still in her pocket and she took it out to look at it. At first sight, the plain white handkerchief was just that, a plain white handkerchief. But, in the lower hand corner of the cloth, embroidered in golden thread, was the initials "E.G" and on its opposite corner is a red kiss mark from Earl Grey herself!

Rosehip squealed in delight as she realized the value of the gesture earlier. This was more than just a plain hanky, this was even more valuable than an autograph! Curiously, she sniffed the cloth and a collection of flowery fragrance and scent of its previous owner entered her nostrils, slowly intoxicating her and making her drunk.

"Is that someone's knickers, commander?" Her driver joked, her hands outstretched, attempting to seize the fabric. She gave her a good kicking to shut her up, not much that it would hurt but enough to make her stop.

Her radio crackled and she stowed away the hankie. She then picked up her headset. "Come in, Revere," the voice on the other end called, which belonged to Cranberry, who was one of her trusty lieutenants and as such commanded her own tank. She probably wasn't all too happy to be now relegated to just being the radio operator for Earl Grey and her Cromwell.

"Revere here, what is it, Longfellow?" she answered back, using the designated codenames, which thrilled her and made think of those old spy films.

"The regulars are coming out, one lantern only I'm afraid," Rosehip noted the message and remembered that it meant one tank had taken the bait and they were now approaching the kill zone.

"Affirmative, getting underway."

Rosehip told her crew to get into their battle stations, with Roselle hopping out of the turret and made her way to her hatch, all with a teacup in hand. She saw Rosemary put away her book into one of the crevices on the turret walls and nudged Rosemallow awake. Rosehip herself took her position behind the gun and got ready for the engagement about to happen.

Slowly, the roar of engines started to fade in, getting louder and louder. The unmistakable purr of the Cromwell's Rolls-Royce Meteor couldn't quite mask the faint Leyland engines of the Matilda Mk. II, which sounded different from the Bedford of the Churchill. Thus, she was sure that Rukuriri was their quarry.

The pair passed the alley where they were hidden. Rukuriri was too busy chasing the Cromwell to take notice of their Crusader hiding in the alley. Rosehip spoke to Roselle via the intercom to turn on their own engine and put her pedal to the metal. They chased the Matilda until they were at point-blank range.

Of course, Rukuriri finally noticed what was happening behind her, perhaps causing much-needed alarm inside the tank. The Matilda came into a halt and began turning its turret but two consecutive shots from the Cromwell in front of her jammed its turret.

The infantry tank was now sandwiched by the two cavalry tank and could only wait for its end. She delivered the _coup de grace_ from behind, where Rukuriri hated it the most. Her tank's 6-pounder popped out a single shot, causing a lot of smoke to disperse from the Matilda. The smoke finally cleared and the Queen of the Desert was no more, her white flag fluttered in the wind and its commander made obscene gestures to the Crusader.

"Way to go!" she cheered, her gunner wasn't the next Hana Isuzu but she can depend on her most of the time and besides, it's pretty hard to miss a point-blank shot, right?

"Jolly good, but we're not done yet" Rosemallow reminded her.

"Good work Rosehip, now only Darjeeling remains at large, let's split up and look for her" Earl Grey responded, who must have taken the receiver from Cranberry.

It did not take long for them to spot the Churchill, with its bulky chassis and slow speed, which made camouflaging it and quickly manoeuvring it virtually impossible, kind of like Brexit.

"We have found them! We're currently at junction B5, executing Operation Midnight Ride!" She said to the receiver, hoping it was Cranberry at the other end.

Rosehip used the Crusader's speed and manoeuvrability to its fullest, zigzagging to avoid the deadly game of tag Assam and Orange Pekoe were playing. The extra rush of adrenaline only aided the feeling of exhilaration she'd been feeling ever since the match started, probably caused by the sugar rush of the soda.

_Left Right Left Right_

She thought to herself. But Roselle can only do so much as Assam finally saw through their pattern and fired a shot, this time striking true and hitting their turret head-on.

"Oh bugger." She felt the shockwave of the projectile as the cavalry tank came abruptly to a halt. All three of her crew were out cold and she opened the turret to let in some sea breeze, lest she passed out as well.

Looking out, she gripped the tank's little flagpole with the white flag on it and used it as a support to stay upright. She saw the Churchill tank attempted to drive away from the skirmish but they were too late. A speeding green blur from the east came blazing in and collided with the Churchill's side, jammed its gun into the turret ring of the infantry tank and fired. The subsequent smoke hid the results from her sight, but it was bright as day who had won.

With an effort, she tried to stay conscious but as her vision continued to darken, she knew that it was a losing battle and she let herself be swept away and hoped for the best.

* * *

The sound of crying startled her awake, but she knew she wasn't truly awake, she was still unconscious and she was just having her regular nightmares.

An eerie mist clouded her vision. From somewhere in the fog, she heard screams.

"You did this to me!"

"You'll pay for what you've done!"

"This is all your fault!"

She tried to cover her ears, but she could not block out the chants. It was there, filling her with guilt, sorrow, and pain. And most importantly, made her remember that fateful day.

She was younger back then, and with no clear responsibilities in life, she played, she did whatever she wanted and then she got careless. Rosehip was riding her bicycle then, weaving through the traffic and even pedalling on the wrong side of the road. She was going on her reckless ways until a speeding van, appeared. Like a deer caught in the headlights, she was frozen in fear as she tried her best to swerve away, but her limbs went numb.

The side of the road was devoid of pedestrians, except for a lone girl in a white dress, who slowly walked, carrying a bag of groceries.

The driver finally seemed to have noticed her and in a split-second decision, the driver turned the wheel and spared her, but unknowingly doomed that girl.

The van halted into a screech and a loud cry was heard. What came next was a sound she would never forget, it was a weep, not of sadness, but of pain, accompanied by screams of agony and pleads for help. These noises blended to form an orchestra, an orchestra of pain and sorrow.

_This must be what hell would sound like_

The ginger's pristine white dress was now stained with blood, blood coming from her leg, now smashed to bits by the accident, an accident Rosehip had caused.

The girl's groceries lay scattered on the street, her blood slowly oozing on the sidewalk and as she slowly faded into unconsciousness, she stared at the girl whose foolishness caused her to suffer pain, a bicyclist who had thought to ride her bicycle on the other side of the road and rush oncoming traffic was a great idea.

Now, an innocent bystander was on the ground, on the tightrope between life and death, all because of her.

The girl's face was twisted with pain, the face that will forever be burned into Rosehip's memory and her accusing eyes, mocking her.

The darkness engulfed her again and she was out cold once again.

* * *

**AN: **Yeah it turned a bit dark at the end!

But…

pulls out Darjeeling's gag*

"Say the line!"

"Go to hell, why the fuck did you kidnap me"

stuffs the gag back*

"What, she was meant to say was **_there is a light at the end of every tunnel. Some tunnels just happen to be longer than others_**. Ada Adams right?."

Thanks again to the people who helped me along the way, Sharkycast for proofreading this mess of a chapter, for WolfWehrmacht for aid in the last part and to you my dear readers, who continue to inspire to write!

Oh, btw you can influence how the story will go! Just comment your thoughts and suggestions and I'll try my best to implement it to the story.

**Edit: (?) **Finally finished proofreading this chapter, hopefully, I managed to remove most of the errors in this chapter (I think) and give Rosehip's companion a bit more character than they rightfully deserved, considering their only screentime is their legs. However, I do suppose it's a worthy investment nonetheless.


	4. Chapter 3: Angel of the Morning

**AN: **Heyo! In the last chapter, we have featured Rosehip AKA as the _Speedster_ of the story, now we turn the spotlight to the Spymaster herself. So sit back and relax and enjoy the show!

* * *

**Chapter 3  
****Angel of the Morning**

**Onboard HMS Ark Royal  
****Florence Nightingale Hospital **

Standing with her other _Noble Sisters_, Assam was anxiously waiting in the corridor outside a hospital room. Her watch showed that it was noon, but she hadn't had anything for lunch yet, with the flurry of activity that followed the match. Even then, she probably wouldn't have had much of an appetite.

If someone said things would go downhill from the moment she took that shot, she would have laughed it off, but she wasn't laughing now.

After their tank popped out the white flag, medical personnel began to rush on the scene, heading for the Crusader. Immediately, they hauled out the four crew members and placed them onto stretchers, which were then loaded into a waiting ambulance, that made haste to the hospital.

With their tank knocked out, she, Darjeeling and Orange Pekoe had hitched a ride on Earl Grey's Cromwell, leaving Ruhuna behind to deal with the Churchill and the Matilda tank.

"What a pity!" She remembered Earl Grey said as the Cromwell raced through the streets at breakneck speeds. Their senpai had volunteered to sit outside the turret to make more space inside the tank, Darjeeling and she sat at the commander's seat and the gunner's seat respectively. Orange Pekoe had to settle deeper inside the hull, seated by the hull machine gun.

Cranberry and her driver remained to help operate the cruiser tank, so a tank designed for five, now held six and even someone who only knew basic arithmetic can deduct that it would be a tight fit.

"Shame, that Rosehip gal is starting to grow on me." Earl Grey carried on, her voice barely audible over the winds that whipped outside the tank. Darjeeling just looked on with her stiff upper lip as she operated the reinstalled boiling vessel, hoping to brew up some tea. It may look as if the situation unfolding didn't phase her but behind that stoic mask, she knew, that her blonde classmate was panicking as much as her, if not more, but Darjeeling had just more practice in keeping her emotions in check, being the Commander and all.

Arriving at the hospital, she saw her kouhai being transferred to a gurney and ran to its side. She immediately saw that Rosehip was physically fine albeit out cold and if to add more to her worry, the girl was obviously experiencing a bad dream.

Beads of sweat were forming at the girl's forehead and she could hear mutterings coming from her.

"No… i-it wasn't my fault… I didn't know...know that it will lead… to that…..I'm sorry." the speed-demon whimpered.

If she was worried before, her worry increased tenfold. _What is she talking about?_ _Why is she apologizing?_ _Who is she even apologizing to?! _All these thoughts battled for her attention, making her brain mushier than mashed potato, a telltale sign that she's running low on food.

_Oh, this is SO my fault._

Meanwhile, the nurses pushed the bed deeper into the hospital, Assam tagged along, much to the looks of the people on the corridors. As the group entered a room, one of the nurses, dressed in the old Victorian way of a black dress, crisp starched white apron and a cap with the Red Cross in it, blocked her way and said.

"I'm sorry Miss, but only medical personnel are allowed beyond this point." The nurse said as she stood in front of the doorway."

"Please, I need to know if she's alright!" Assam shouted in exasperation, blinded by tears of worry that now streaked her face.

"Her conditions are stable, but we will have to perform tests to be sure. We'll inform you when you are allowed to see her. May I have your number, so we know who to call?"

"Alright," she said, reciting it all from memory. The nurse repeated it to make sure she got it right and she nodded when she heard the professional repeated it correctly. She watched as the orderly turned her back and close the door momentarily afterwards.

"Assam!" she turned as she heard her name being called and saw her two companions had finally managed to catch up with her, still breathing heavily as if they had run a marathon.

"This is all my fault!" she said in despair, her back against the corridor wall, her head buried in her arms as she lamented the fact that she was the one who pulled the trigger.

She felt the soft small delicate hands of Orange Pekoe on her shoulder and she felt the girl sympathising with her, but what happened did not make any sense.

"Something like that shouldn't have happened-" Assam exclaimed, throwing up her hands. "-the shot didn't even penetrate the vehicle but it knocked the entire crew out!" she frustrating said.

"Unfortunate business with Rosehip and her crew, however, it was not in any way your fault," Darjeeling said, reassuring her.

A bespectacled girl, which she recognised as Nilgiri, timidly approached their trio.

"Miss Darjeeling, Madam Earl Grey wants to meet you in your office."

Darjeeling suddenly stormed off, much to the surprise of everyone in the corridor. With her own problems momentarily forgotten, Assam and Orange Pekoe followed suit, only a few steps behind, wondering why she reacted like that.

The problem with hiding your emotions is just like a boiling vessel, if left unchecked, the built-up of pressure would increase, eventually causing it to explode. Assam thought. The impromptu return of their senpai has probably caused so much stress on Darjeeling that she started to crack. In all her years of knowing Darjeeling, this was the first time she witnessed her so worked up. Even when she was rounding up on Rosehip for her shenanigans, she maintained a calm demeanour.

But now the facade had crumbled, as her fellow blonde marched off to her own office. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed how Pekoe's face is twisted with worry as they followed her senpai. She herself knew, that aside from the former's obsession with quotes, Darjeeling was a capable mentor to the orange-haired girl chasing after her; in fact, they probably had a better senpai-kouhai relationship compared to the one she has with Rosehip.

_Rosehip... that carefree klutz. She never really gave a damn to what others think_

At first, she was excited to finally have someone pass on what she learned about being a refined lady herself. However, she soon gave up on the idea when she met Rosehip. A lost cause, the kind of girl who'd do naughty things to herself when she thought no one was looking.

The only reason she was lady-like earlier was that they had a bet a day before. It worked, but she knew that cheeky gal would take advantage of it if she did it every time and Assam knew she would long be penniless before she graduated if it continued.

But, she pushed that pink-haired devil out of her mind and focused on the task at hand. By now she was close enough to hear her commander's mutterings.

"That bugger thinks she can push me around like a bloody pawn."

_Oh dear, this has turned into a problem_

Darjeeling rarely swore, like blue moon rare. Assam could count on her fingers how many times the other girl swore out loud and most of them were when she stubbed her toe around their apartment

Pekoe looked like she was about to cry but a determined look on her face kept her together. Much to Assam's surprise, the little girl grabbed the hand of her commander and pulled.

"Darjeeling-sama, please calm down. As the saying goes, _Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured." _Orange Pekoe said, mimicking the girl herself.

Darjeeling, who a few moments ago looked so pissed, now had a blank look on her face, and as if she had suddenly gone through the five stages of grief in a span of few seconds, smiled weakly.

"Ah yes, a great quote from Mark Twain, my bad, I apologize for making you two worry. Guess it was just the stress taking its toll.

With Darjeeling now calmed down and the bomb now defused, they sauntered the rest of the way to the Office of Senshadou Commander.

* * *

Leading the party, Assam volunteered to open the door, and knocking beforehand, she turned the knob and she steeled herself at what she perceived as a fracas about to start.

Unlike the Tea Garden, Darjeeling had taken the liberty in decorating her office. Above the standard fireplace, beneath another portrait of St. Gloriana, was a cavalry sabre, rumoured to have been a valuable heirloom, but was actually bought by Earl Grey at an antique store back on the mainland. The midday sunlight passed through large arched windows, hitting the plush velvet carpet that covered the room. Placed on top of this were a few pieces of furniture, including a sofa, filing cabinets, a bookshelf and a desk rumoured to have been crafted from the deck wood of the pre-dreadnought ship Mikasa, among many others.

In addition to this, the walls were lined with various paintings and pictures, the former a reminder of her commander's skills with a brush and the latter to remind them what they were fighting for. Some of the pictures included group photographs of the entire team but most of what was framed were pictures of the three of them doing a whole lot of shenanigans.

Incidentally, she remembered that Darjeeling also had a portrait of Chi-Ha-Tan's commander Nishi Kinuyo, which apparently was long idolized by her commandant, hidden away in the safe. She only knew about it when she barged into this very room herself back then and spotted her fellow third-year intensely staring at the portrait, with lust in her eyes. It was of one the many secrets kept between them that each hope would never see the light of day.

Anyhow, they found Earl Grey, not sitting behind the oak desk nor by the window but rather lounging on the sofa reading a small red book that seems familiar.

_Wait, isn't that…._

"Hey! That's my journal!" Darjeeling said out loud, her face a weird mix of embarrassment and anger.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't tell a soul." Assam saw the alumnus stand up and walk over to hand over the diary back to its owner and was surprised when she promptly leaned close to her.

"She tried cooking yesterday, almost burned down your dorm," the former commander said to her in a low voice, wiping a tear from her eye.

"Anyways, what is it that the thing that you need to discuss so urgently?" Darjeeling asked, with hints of anger in her eyes as she grasped her journal hard.

Now it was Earl Grey's turn to get flustered. Now, this piqued Assam's interest. What was something so important and embarrassing at the same time that made a lady like Earl Grey fidgety?

"I will have to ask your crew to leave beforehand."

"Either we talk about it with them or we wouldn't talk at all!" Darjeeling protested, making her stand.

"Darjeeling, I didn't come home all the way from England just for a cup of tea and a rematch, and I'm pretty sure you know that," Earl Grey suddenly turned her back on them and approached the bookshelf and shifted through Darjeeling's vinyl collection and pulled a record out. She popped it into the vintage gramophone on the corner and replaced the pin.

As the disk started to spin, she was sure that she was not alone when it came to giving their upper-class schoolmate a look of confusion.

"Just in case. You never know who's listening. Earl Grey explained, giving her a look that said that she knew more.

As the record began to play the first bar of the song-

_I give you a toast ladies and gentlemen_

-she was sure it was Vera Lynn's_There'll always be an England_, one of the most famous victory songs of WW2.

"Well, you see my dear children, back when I had just taken the position of the commander..." Earl Grey started. The other three had deposited themselves on the sofa while Earl Grey had remained standing.

"The alumni association knew that I was adamant in my agenda of having the school win, no matter what the cost, even throwing the school's supposed elegance away." Darjeeling was about to interrupt before Earl Grey raised a hand.

"Now, those _basterds_ thought of an ingenious plan. They funded an Irish-themed school called _Shamrock School For Girls_ in the hopes that they would carry on the traditions St Gloriana would, in their eyes, throw away." Assam and the two others with her looked at their senpai in a state of incredulity. They had never heard of this supposed Irish-themed school, staying in England for so long must have muddled Earl Grey's mind in order for her to make up this ludicrous tale.

"The matter was closed when I gave in to some of the alumni's demands and made a compromise, forcing them to pull out of Shamrock" she continued.

"But if you're telling us about it now, then it wasn't truly closed?" she asked as she noticed Darjeeling nudging Pekoe to pinch her hard to make sure that this wasn't all a bizarre dream.

"Correct, right now there is an attempt by someone named Iona Yoshimura, also known inside the school as Shannon, to revive their Senshadou Team." She suddenly produced a manila envelope and placed it on the coffee table.

They picked it up and opened it to view its contents. Massive bird's eye view pictures, both black-and-white and coloured, of an aircraft carrier smaller than the standard size. These photos were labelled in red marker with _HMS Unicorn_. Next was a photo of a small redhead that strangely looked like the president of Ooarai's student council, this one is marked with the name Earl Grey mentioned earlier. Lastly, were two or three tanks manoeuvring in a field, leaving behind sets of tracks on the mud.

"Where did you get these?" she said out loud. Most of the shots were too high to be shot by an ordinary drone, they were probably taken by a low altitude reconnaissance satellite.

Earl Grey just winked at her. "Let's just say I have friends in high places, but that's beside the point, if they uncovered the attempt of our school to mess with another school's internal affairs, it could be a public relations nightmare"

Darjeeling frowned and said. "What do you want me to do?" Silence ensued in the room for a while, the three of them were busy processing the load of info they were given, before a shrill whistling of a kettle permeated throughout the room. Apparently, Earl Grey had helped herself to Darjeeling's personal tea kettle and brew herself and the others steaming cups of hot chocolate, a deviation from the traditional tea.

"I developed a fondness for these when I was abroad, anyhow, it's your call, you're the one in the helm now, I just gave you all the information." Earl Grey pulled up an ottoman and sat down to enjoy her cup of cocoa.

Assam took a sip from her own cup and tasted a sweet concoction, too sweet for her palate and set it down. Her two companions were still deep in thought and left their cups untouched.

_Rosehip would have loved this_

Ah, there goes that roseate-haired girl again, suddenly running around her thoughts again, like her real-life version. And once more, she shoved that lass to the recesses of her mind.

"We can send a liaison and even send in some of our spare tanks as diplomatic gifts," Darjeeling said, twirling her teacup around the saucer, a telltale sign of when she was nervous.

"But who would work out the finer details of this conference?" Assam asked, noticing Darjeeling's mantel clock had struck quarter past noon and despite their elevenses earlier, she felt the need for real food.

"I was thinking of you, Assam-san." Darjeeling smiled maliciously, gladly passing the responsibility to another person.

She was sure the look of surprise was evident on her face but there was no use protesting now, with everyone's eyes on her. "If that is what you want, I'll accept the offer."

She took out the photo of Iona or Shannon or whatever. "She does kinda look like Miss Kadotani of Oarai, who rekindled the flames of that school, enough that they won the 64th Senshadou Tournament. However, it needed a Nishizumi to make that possible."

_There couldn't be another one, right?_ she thought.

"Great then, it looks like there's nothing left to discuss!" her commander clapped her hands as she started to stand up.

"Just a minute." Earl Grey suddenly produced a bottle of champagne and four champagne glass, much to the surprise and shock of the others.

Assam herself raised an eyebrow as she saw Earl Grey place a wine glass each in front of them and went to the fireplace. With a great pull, the girl unsheathed the sabre from its scabbard and positioned it on the bottle

"Please no, the carpet is delica-" Darjeeling trailed off half-hearted as their senpai used the sharp edge of the sabre to remove the top end of the bottle cleanly, spilling some of its contents.

Earl Grey topped their glasses, despite them declining and asked them to do a toast. "To the future relationship of St Gloriana and Shamrock, cheers!"

She and her other Churchill crewmates took tiny sips, cautiously tasting the sparkling wine, while Earl Grey chugged it in one go. The drink tasted bitter as it rolled on her tongue but as she took more, she began to appreciate its hints of sweetness and the underlying taste of fruitiness, however, she knew to drink in moderation to avoid getting drunk.

She felt a buzz in her pocket and took out her phone. It was a message from the hospital management, stating that she may now visit. She placed down her glass and stated that she had to go, Darjeeling and the others waved while Earl Grey took more glasses of champagne.

She went out and was about to close the door when she was pursued by Earl Grey, who then closed the door.

"Before you go, I want you to take this," the girl said, a little tipsy from the glassfuls she had taken, and she took out a small box.

Assam opened the box and found what looked like a firearm, placed on velvet silk, along with other accessories.

"Is this a gun, why are you giving me a gun?!"

"There are rumours of Anti-St. Gloriana sentiment in Shamrock; take that Welrod pistol, along with two extra magazines as a precaution." Earl Grey just lazily smiled and patted her head.

"I can't shoot to kill..." she said, closing the box shut and tried handing it back to her senpai.

"You're going to be one who'll pull the trigger, you'll be calling the shots." Earl Grey simply waved the box away.

"I-I okay then." she just gave in.

"And besides as the saying goes: _Keep your faith in God, but keep your powder dry_." Earl Grey quoted, making a small hiccup before covering her mouth.

"Oliver Cromwell?" Although she wasn't a victim of Darjeeling's quote addiction, she had taken extra steps in case she found herself alone with her fellow blonde.

"Sharp as ever!" Earl Grey praised her and sent her off.

_Today couldn't get any worse, could it?_

* * *

After she left Darjeeling's office, she took a cab to her dormitory. She shared a dorm with her other Noble Sisters, it was quite spacious with a bedroom for each and a spare one for guests. One of the problems she had with this arrangement was that the dorm only had a single bathroom, which required all three of them to have a tightly knit schedule, to work like a well-oiled machine, or else they'll all be late. Another issue was the fact that being bunked in with Darjeeling forced her and Pekoe to literally dash to the kitchen before any mealtime lest Darjeeling knocks up another nasty concoction that would leave their guts wrenching and send them off to the emergency room.

Assam opened the door with her own key and went to her room, but not before taking a detour to the kitchen, where she toasted some bread up and topped it off with some reheated leftover Welsh Rarebit. A dollop of Worcestershire sauce from the pantry made the somewhat Spartan meal a more delicious affair. A quick visit to her wardrobe and gone were the red coat and black skirt of her Senshadou uniform and were replaced by a blue blouse and a long red skirt. She finished the look by wearing sunglasses and a purple purse. Before she forgot, she left the box Earl Grey had given to her on her pristine desk, intending to examine it at greater length later on, and then locked her room.

Prior to leaving the house, she retrieved her black motorcycle helmet and the keys for her scooter, which she had hidden in a small shed in the backyard of their home. It was an Anzio-made Vespa motor scooter, which had served her dearly, especially during the gridlock of the early morning rush.

Putting on her helmet, she rode off back to Nightingale's, which was located all the way on the other side of town. Their dorm was located in the affluent Mayfair district in the West End, while the school proper was in between the city.

Weaving in between cars and circling a roundabout containing a replica of the Victoria Memorial, the original being outside Buckingham Palace, she stopped and parked her scooter on Regent Street. The street was a shopping lane for all the residents of the carrier, especially for the well-off ones, and she decided to procure some items before she visited the quartet.

Entering a florist, she bought four bouquets, imported from Ooarai, doubtless arranged by the Ikebana master herself. Along the way, she went to a sweetshop, which is completely different from a sweatshop, and brought a small packet of Konpeitō, colourful sugar sweets that are a favourite of the redhead.

She remembered the time the pink-haired girl chugged a sachet of these rainbow confections, which induced a 24-hour sugar rush that resulted in half a dozen tanks taken out and a permanent ban on consumptions of these candies before Senshadou matches.

A wide grin was on her face as she made the rest of the journey. After parking her scooter yet again, she walked off to register at the hospital's reception. Signing herself in, it was now five minutes after one, she began the final leg of her journey.

Room 305; her final destination. Holding bundles of flowers and a paper bag, she knocked and pushed the door open. A small round object suddenly sailed over her head as she saw a girl dressed in Gloriana's Senshadou uniform digging into the fruit basket by her bedside.

"How dare you!" the brown-haired girl shouted, posed to throw an apple before she realized who was in front of her. "Oh, wait, Assam-sama, sorry I mistook you for someone else."

"And who would that poor soul be?" This was Rosehip's driver if memory serves her right but she had forgotten her name. Rosalia, Rosella... Roselle, ah yes, her name was Roselle, who according to Rosehip was _her sister from another mother_.

"The nurses at this hospital! They took my boots away!" Roselle gestured to her bare feet, now missing their signature boots which had clashed violently with the rest of her clothing.

_I wonder if she wears them as well when she goes to bed_

"Don't worry, they'll probably return it later, say how come you're wide awake?" Assam asked as she made her way around the round, placing the flowers into vases and placed the sweets at Rosehip's nightstand.

"Oh, that concussion earlier, I've received worse, nice shot though." Roselle peeled a banana and began attacking it. The poor wretch hadn't had lunch yet, she remembered.

"Uhm thanks, well in that case, can you tell Rosehip that I visited?" she said, accepting the compliment despite having a heavy heart.

"Okie-Dokie!" The girl was now chowing down on a bundle of grapes, which were rapidly decreasing in number as they got devoured relentlessly.

Now on Rosehip's side, she watched as her precious kouhai slept. The distress on the girl's face earlier now had disappeared and she looked quite peaceful as she lay tucked in on her bed, almost like an angel, as opposed to her hasty personality when the girl was awake.

If only Rosehip will remain in this state forever and besides, she looked really cute...

_Wait a second! That's not quite right._

She was just concerned, nothing special about it. Right? Assam immediately purged the memory from her mind. Curiously, she reached out to touch Rosehip's cheek before leaving.

On leaving the room, she noticed her phone buzzing and she took it out to reveal that Darjeeling had been trying to reach her several times in the last few minutes.

Darjeeling's weary but strangely cheerful voice greeted her as she answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Assam, it's Darjeeling. Thank God, I managed to dispose of Earl Grey! There will be an assembly later at three o'clock in the afternoon, sharp. Be there. We'll be discussing this Shamrock affair. Additionally, the mechanics will be reporting something important.

_Guess th__ere go all__ her Saturday plans..._

* * *

**AN:** Well, the last part took some time to erk out. Again, thanks to those who helped out and suggestions/criticism is very welcomed!

**P.S: (?) **You may notice that there may some discontinuity with the previous chapter. Don't worry, it's being addressed at the time of the publishing of this chapter.

**P.S.S (7/27/20): **Edited this as of late, removed stuff and added stuff, you know the drill. If there are still any grammatical errors left, please do tell and as always, see you next time!


	5. Chapter 4: Tides

**Author's Notes:** Hello! Long time no see! It's been a while, yeah but it's not my fault, schoolwork was tough and I totally didn't get lazy. Well, to compensate for the long wait, I'll give you all an extra-long chapter to enjoy. Well, till the end of the chapter, bye-bye~

* * *

**Chapter 4  
****Tides**

**Onboard HMS Ark Royal  
****Florence Nightingale Hospital  
****20th of April **

Rosehip slowly stirred out of her slumber. Her senses informed her that she was laid down on something comfy and soft. _A bed probably?_ She also felt something heavy sitting on the far end of the bed by her feet.

Opening her eyes, she was greeted by Roselle, who was humming a song as the brunette picked petals from a rose and threw them on the bedsheet. The sunlight coming from somewhere illuminated the girl's large forehead, somehow even reflecting the light so that she had to blink a couple of times before Roselle's face came into full view.

"What are you doing?" she asked, somewhat annoyed by both the mutilation of an innocent rose and the fact that the petals were staining the starched white bedsheet.

"The sleeping beauty has finally awoken! I'm just preparing you for the next time Princess Charming visits." Tossing out a petalless rose, Roselle picked up another and started the process over again.

"Huh, what are you talking about and where are we?" Looking around, she saw that the room they were was scrupulously spotless, and the faint smell of disinfectant reached her nose.

_Are we in a hospital of sorts?_

Further glancing around led her to see four more beds like the one she was lying down on. The one next to her held her gunner Rosemary still fast asleep, while the two remaining beds lay empty, one for Roselle and another for Rosemallow she assumed.

"We're in Nightingale's and you've been out cold for a few hours."

Well, that explained her throbbing head, the only thing she remembered was being shot at by the Churchill and before she knew it, she and the others were knocked out cold. Strangely, the shot knocked her and her crew, necessitating the need to go to the school's onboard hospital.

"Did anything happen while I was knocked out?" she asked as she sat up a bit as Roselle handed her a glass of water and she drank her fill. Her throat was dry as the deserts of North Africa and the drink was like deliverance to her.

"Your _English_ _rose_ just came by earlier."

A jet of water suddenly spewed out of her mouth as she spat out the water she was drinking, causing the floor next to her bed to be wet.

"Assam-senpai?! Did she say anything?" she sat up even straighter as she felt herself blushing furiously, her cheeks quickly heating up.

"Nah, she did leave a present for you," her driver said, nodding towards the nightstand.

Rosehip turned and saw a pleasant surprise. A kaleidoscopic of colours in the form of a bouquet was by her side, its scent a perfume that was slowly filling her up as she picked up a flower and sniffed it. Attached to the stem on one of the flowers, is a tag. Taking a closer look, it read;

**Get well soon! Love, Assam.**

Her blush deepened and she stifled a scream. She had her senpai's love! And for her, that was the only thing that mattered in the world right now.

She was snapped out of her trance by Roselle, who did so by throwing a bundle of petals at her face.

"Before you descend into insanity, she also left something else for you." Her driver pointed to an object that was blocked from her view by the vase.

It was a conspicuous brown paper bag. Curiously, she peeked at its contents.

"Konpeitō!" Rosehip exclaimed to her delight; she could barely contain her excitement as she ripped open the package and poured a handful on her palm and popped it into her eager mouth.

The crunch of the candy as she brought her teeth down like the hammers of justice was a pleasure indeed relishing the sweet gooey puddle that formed as the crushed sweets melted on her tongue. The experience was completed when she felt some of the stuff stick to the roof of her mouth.

"You looked like you came," her driver, who just finished laughing her head off, cracked.

She was about to snap back when a knock on the door suddenly interrupted their conversation.

"Come in," she said to whoever it was outside.

A tall brown-haired girl dressed in St Gloriana's blue school uniform abruptly entered, her hair set in a vintage pin-curl style that hadn't been in fashion for decades. Other than her antediluvian coiffure, another feature that puts the girl in the spotlight is the blackeye she has on her right eye.

An awkward standoff ensued between the three as they waited who would speak first.

"Uhm..." The girl looked like she wanted to say something but words failed her and she trailed off.

"Quite a nasty shiner you got there mate," Roselle snicked, still in a mood to poke fun at others.

The new arrival looked as if she was going to reply when a nurse barged into the room. Her long black hair was meticulously tied into a French braid with a complexity that only served to complement her prosaic hair. A pair of red-framed eyeglasses were also gingerly held on her nose, serving as a window to her hazel eyes.

"Miss Alexander, your accommodation is the next door on the left," she said as she led the girl away by her arm. Suddenly, her head popped back into the doorway and said, "Sorry about that ladies." promptly closing the door.

"What was that all about?" she asked, chowing down on more candies, much to her heart's fulfilment.

"Dunno, but she looks like one of the new transferees," Roselle said. She stood up, went back to her bed and picked up this month's issue of _Senshadou Monthly _and started to peruse the magazine.

Looking at a clock on the far end of the wall, Rosehip spotted that it was already half-past three o'clock in the afternoon. The sudden realization that she hadn't had anything for lunch hit her hard. Her stomach roared in protest, demanding something more filling than sugary candies.

"Hey Roselle, where is Rosemallow by the way?" she asked, wondering where her loader had gone to.

"She had woken up not long after Assam-senpai passed by, then her elder sister visited afterwards and said something along the lines of Senshadou being a dangerous sport and then took her to get lunch at the cafeteria."

"Maybe we should get lunch as well?" She replied, the mere mention of the word making her even hungrier.

"Nah, don't worry, I already took care of it," her friend replied.

As if on cue, Vanilla and Cranberry barged into the room, the former carrying a tray, the latter carrying two, doubtlessly one for her still snoozing gunner.

"What took you so long, you fuckin walked here?" Roselle stung out, who must have been waiting for so long for the two to come back.

"As a matter of fact, yes we did, now shut up and enjoy the food." Vanilla retorted back, balancing the tray she held, careful not to spill its contents.

The trays were filled with God knows what, but the aroma! It was heavenly and made her stomach growl more. Or maybe that was her hunger, desperate to eat anything.

"What are we having for today?" Rosehip asked, trying her best to not drool in front of others.

"Just some mashed potato and sausages," Cranberry replied, setting down the tray on her lap. True to her word, the food consisted of a mound of mash, with some chopped chives on top, and three fat greasy sausages, all coated with a thick layer of onion gravy and one glass of water.

"Bangers and mash? Yum!" Roselle said as Vanilla gave a tray to her and immediately, tucked in, not bothering to place the napkin on her lap first. After doing the said activity, Rosehip picked up her spoon and began attacking the mound as well, while periodically taking bites of the sausage.

Initially, she had had difficulty adjusting to British cuisine and Darjeeling serving her now-infamous jellied eels at the Welcome Party didn't help. But over time, she overcame her hesitation and dove in headfirst to the world of another culture. Sure, the mashed taters need more salt but it was hospital food, so no luck there. Of course, she still hadn't forgotten her roots and occasionally ate something from her own culture as well, for example, the _konpeito_ that she now saved for dessert.

In no time, the food was gone, while the two who had delivered the food had smirks on their faces as if they were watching a speed-eating competition.

Rosehip gave a small burp and laughed along with the others afterwards. This is why she was happy to be along with her Crusader comrades, they didn't really care if you committed a _faux pas_, unlike others who judge you from their ivory towers.

Immediately the earlier protests of her stomach were now silenced as she resumed munching on her candies.

Vanilla and Cranberry stayed around for small talk and shared the latest gossip; about how after sending off Earl Grey, Darjeeling had a thunderous look on her face and began taking her anger out on the nearby garden decor.

"Bollocks! Darjeeling-sama would never do that! She's always calm and collected, not to mention Earl-Grey senpai is her mentor, why would she get mad at her? Also, I had to escort Earl Grey-senpai earlier too, and she's one of the nicest people I have come across," Rosehip countered. She didn't really care much for rumours but she sensed that this could possibly tarnish their commander's reputation and so she shot it down before it could even take off.

The two looked down at their shoes in silence, after all, even though the rules were a bit relaxed when they're all together, she was still their commanding officer and Rosehip was content that they at least felt sorry for it.

She had set aside her tray, also unfolding the napkin, and was considering taking a leak when the door slammed open and a tall girl entered the room and immediately after headed straight to her bed, the girl's brown long braided hair swinging like a puppy's tail.

"Rosehip...contraption…Darjeeling…heads will roll!" Rukuriri mumbled, trying to catch her breath first before forming cohesive sentences.

"Slow down a bit there Ruk, just calm down." She looked at her, concerned. Meanwhile, her two subordinates, sensing trouble, took their leave and closed the door behind them while Roselle walked over to hear what the overall Matilda commander had to say.

"They discovered your convoluted contraption."

Rosehip chilled at these words and saw her driver turn pale too and they both had good reason to. Any illegal tampering of Senshadou vehicles, even if it was just to serve cold beverages, was an offence punishable with suspension from the team or worse, expulsion, effective immediately.

_Would this be the end of my Senshadou career?_

"Furthermore, they found out that it had interfered with the tank's safety features, causing the blackout you and all of your crew had experienced earlier." The brunette sat in the corner of her bed and helped herself to some of the candy, which Rosehip had abandoned after hearing of the terrible news.

"Did she say anything about consequences or something?" Unbeknownst to Rukuriri, Rosehip was slowly leaning forward, eager to hear what her response would be.

"Something along the lines of _sacrificing personal safety for a few creature comforts _and that _heads will roll,_" Rukuriri replied nonchalantly, examining a sugar candy before throwing it down her mouth.

"Thanks a lot, you're a Godsend! Anything else?"

"They talked about an Irish school of sorts but I fell asleep by then, Nilgiri just woke me after it was done and I immediately ran over here." She stood up and fixed her skirt. "Well, I'll be off, where the hell are you going?" she suddenly said, much to Rosehip's surprise.

She followed where Rukuriri was looking and saw Roselle had gone back to her bed and was in the process of putting on her boots, her Senshadou jacket on her shoulders.

"It's a bit unfair, ain't it? They should hear our side first before passing judgement," her driver fumed as she walked to the door, only to be intercepted by Rukuriri who began talking her out of her insane plan.

She watched the two, each trying to undermine the other and cracked a smile, despite the news she received. Might as well make the most out of her remaining time on the team.

With her being in deep thought, she failed to immediately notice her phone buzzing on the nightstand and it was on its third ring before she picked her up.

"Hello, Rosehip here, who's this?

"It's Assam, how's it going?"

_Oh, God… It's Assam-senpai, what do I do?!_

"I-I'm fine, just had lunch, why'd you call?"

"By now you know that your little fridge has been found out?"

Rosehip almost dropped the phone in shock. "How did you know?" she replied, anxious at what will come next.

"Rukuriri just visited, didn't she? And is still there, correct?"

"How did you bloody know that? You're nearby aren't you?"

"Don't be silly, I bugged the bouquet."

"You did what?!" she exclaimed, holding up the bouquet to inspect it carefully and sure enough, placed on the ribbon was a small circular device that was smaller than a penny and looked like a button.

Both Roselle and Rukuriri looked at her in surprise and asked if she was alright.

"Assam-senpai has been secretly listening to our conversation!" Roselle's face was aghast while Rukuriri looked as if she already knew.

"Don't go destroying that wire now, it's quite expensive."

Rosehip pulled the device from the ribbon to inspect it, but it was so minuscule that a magnifying glass would be needed to examine it in detail. "How does this thing even work? It's so tiny!"

"It has a transmitter that's connected to my ear that allows it to go through great distances," Assam explained, the girl's voice a cheerful chirp and it served only to infuriate Rosehip even more.

"You're unbelievable!" she shouted into the gadget, hoping it would make the Assam wince in pain, as a payback for this indecent spying.

"It's not inserted in my ear right now. Take it easy." The girl on the other end replied.

"Don't tell me there's a camera in here too?" She asked, turning the bug in her hand.

"Okay, now that's a little paranoid but I can tell you something that can save your arse." Her senpai said, her voice sounding like trumpets from heavens and instantly putting her at ease.

"Alright, you have my attention." Rosehip waited with bated breath, this could be the magic bullet that she needed.

"I need the assistance of you and your crew on my trip to Shamrock."

"Sha-sham what?!" Rosehip stuttered, caught unaware of the sudden request.

"It's an Irish-themed school of sorts that we are going to link up with," Assam carefully explained.

"Why us?" Rosehip asked. If they needed an interpreter, Orange Pekoe would have been a better choice, after all, she aced the aptitude English test a few days ago. God forbid they would have her speak English or whatever language they speak in that country.

"In addition to visiting, we are handing over a few tanks as a sign of goodwill, and we need someone who has the expertise when it comes to repairing tanks and who else should I turn to other than the best, you're not the head mechanic for our team for nothing, right? Her senpai answered back.

_Did she just praise me?! Did Assam-senpai say I was the best?_

"Can you give me time to mull this over?" she replied, still processing the stream of information being passed on to her.

"Sure, just give me a ring when you have made a decision." She ended the call and saw the eager looks the girls in front of her were giving her.

"So, what did she say?" Roselle asked, her anger earlier now replaced by a smile whether Assam-senpai's name was brought up.

Rosehip spent a good part of a few minutes sharing what she has been told over the phone. Rukuriri merely nodded while Roselle had a gleam in her eyes. The Matilda commander said farewell, perhaps not wanting to be more involved in all the mire they were about to enter and was on the way to the door when it opened and the same nurse from before now carrying a tray with a teapot and some cheap china.

"Would you girls like some tea?" The nurse smiled at them sweetly, so sweet that it could make a pot of honey a run for its money. None of them could refuse and Roselle gladly took the tray, a weird look in her eyes.

"Oh and your friend, Ms Rosemary, here, I'm afraid she wouldn't be waking up soon." The nurse went beside the girl in question and clipped something on the clipboard that was attached by the foot of the bed.

Dread filled her insides again and she had to swallow before asking "Do… do you mean, she's in a coma?"

The nurse frowned, adjusting her glasses, "No, what I mean is she has more severe concussions than you had and it will probably be a few hours before she can regain consciousness. Don't worry, she won't develop any lifelong consequences, but she'll be quite tired for a few days, and that's it. Please do call if she does wake up. If you don't need anything else, I'll be off now."

The nurse had a bounce in her step as she walked towards the door but turned around, "If you do need assistance, just ask for it in the nurse's station around the corner, or just ask for Nurse Amy," giving them another one of her beautiful smiles.

The three of them looked at each other, Roselle having a cheeky grin on her face, as they began drinking the tea. It was nothing special, just plain generic tea, but tradition was tradition so they drank it just like they drank the tea brewed by Orange Pekoe.

Rukuriri asked where the restroom was and Roselle pointed her to the back of the room, where a sterile bathroom was located. The braided girl put down her teacup and went to use the powder room.

Rosehip had to weigh her options. If she did agree to go to that school and mess up, that would be the final straw for Darjeeling. But if she did not, she, along with her team would be booted from the group.

She must have had a pensive look on her face because Roselle snapped her fingers in front of her face. "A penny for your thoughts?" she asked, holding the tray the Cranberry had placed on Rosemary's nightstand, realizing she could very well eat the girl's share of food since she wouldn't be back up any time soon.

"It's about the deal Assam-san gave us, I don't know if I should accept it or reject it," she said dejectedly.

"Why would you reject such a deal, it's too good to be true!" Roselle replied, in-between mouthfuls of cold mashed potatoes.

"That's the point, this is a big thing for Assam-san, I don't want to ruin her moment. _Not to mention ruining any chances of her with Assam-senpai._

"You must have hit your head harder than I thought. You would normally have taken this opportunity like you took every curve in the carrier in our tank. My oh my, is the great Rosehip finally reeled in control?" Roselle laughed, waving the metal spoon around like a baton.

"Shut up, you know I'm being serious so do so as well or I'll bonk your head with that tray," she fumed, her fingers slowly tightening around the stem of the teacup, so much that it could break any minute now.

"Geez, no need to get worked up, I'm just messing with you. You have to take into consideration that she asked for us exactly, it would be extremely rude to turn her down," the girl said, eating the last spoonful with relish.

"I see your point," Rosehip nodded and picked up her phone.

"And besides, it's not like it will cost you your life, right?" Roselle finished, using a piece of sausage to wipe the last vestiges of mashed potatoes on her plate.

She dialled Assam's number, _which she totally didn't have memorized_ and pressed the call button. The call was picked up immediately at the other end.

"Hello, Assam-senpai, we accept your request, however, there may be a snag."

"And what would that be?"

"A nurse came over and said we could be discharged tomorrow but Rosemary, our gunner, has to stay."

"Will she be alright?"

"The nurse said it wasn't anything serious, just some mild concussion."

"Okay, I'll take her spot in the meantime."

_Being in the same tank as Assam-senpai. Is this for real?_

"I'll be heading over to visit soon. Goodbye." Assam said before ending the call. She heard steps coming from behind her as Rukuriri came back from the bathroom.

"Did I miss anything?"

* * *

**Onboard HMS Ark Royal  
****St Gloriana's Tank Garage  
****22nd of April**

Rosehip spent a sleepless night in the hospital after Roselle kept trying all night long to use a marker to draw on her face, till a smack on the face with a pillow finally did her in.

Assam-senpai did visit the day after, explaining to her all that she knew about the school they would be visiting. Shamrock seemed to be a small school-based around the country of Ireland, which apparently had a long history with the United Kingdom. In fact, if Assam-senpai hadn't pointed it out on a world map, she wouldn't even have found it. After that, they managed to grab lunch together, although she had a nagging suspicion that someone, who she was sure was wearing leather boots, was following the two of them.

She, along with Roselle and Rosemallow, was discharged from Nightingale's yesterday afternoon, so they all returned back to their dormitories minus one. Rosemary had finally woken up and the girl's red hair which was usually tied into twin tails using ribbons was left in a dishevelled bird's nest and she had to smack her driver again for trying to hide the poor girl's black-framed eyeglasses, which caused Rosemary's golden eyes to slightly tear up. Though the girl definitely teared up when they said their goodbyes but they did promise to visit again after they returned.

"Rosehip-san?" Rukuriri, who was the dealer, snapped her out of her thoughts "Your response?"

"Call" she declared as she pulled a packet of Skittles candy from her pocket and placed it on the ever-growing pile. She knew that she should at least try to keep a straight face but couldn't help but smile like a madwoman.

Rosehip was in the lounge room with the others playing poker after a day's hard work. The lounge room also had a snooker table and a dartboard, whilst a jukebox belted out tunes in the corner. She learned how to play poker from her brothers, who picked up the card game in boredom. While her skills wouldn't foil a terrorist plot in a high-stakes game in a Monte Carlo casino, it was enough to make her one of the best players in St Gloriana, if not the best.

On the table with her was, of course, Rukuriri, Rukuriri's subordinate, Nilgiri, the Cranberry and Vanilla pair, her own driver, Roselle, and the rest were the technical crew, fellow mechanics who were the backbone of the team. Rosemallow, while not seated on the table was in the room, roaming around, a tray in hand, filled with slices of pound cake and crunchy madeleines, which went hand in hand with the afternoon tea. Today's session had gotten more intense than usual, so much that the tension in the room was so thick one couldn't penetrate it with a 6-pounder shell.

Despite being only discharged the day before, she joined the others as they had spent the entire afternoon making the old Covenanter tanks serviceable again. Darjeeling had decided that the perfect gift would be three of these baby Crusaders, which the other members had considered too generous. A select few had even wanted to just give them the Valiant Gloriana had long since removed from service but Darjeeling wasn't _that _cruel.

However, before they could repair the tanks, they had to first get their hands on them. So, she along with others took part in a trip to retrieve the cruiser tanks from the abysses of the ship, even encountering delinquents from the Naval Studies huddled together for warmth around an oil drum. The repair itself was quite as tricky because after years of being exposed to the elements, some parts of the tank had to be replaced, and then there was the issue of the radiator, which many consider was the Achilles' heel of the tank, but it was nothing she and her trusty band of mechanics couldn't handle.

The lounge room, which was nothing but a refurbished storage shed, was small, in fact, the dozen or so girls inside were constantly bumping into one another, causing much argument over at the snooker table. It also made the room very uncomfortable and hot. Because of that, she was only wearing her undershirt; her red Senshadou jacket slung on the chair she was sitting on. The others were dressed down to the same degree as her, revealing their voluptuous breasts or their flat as plank chests. Roselle, on the other hand, was still fully dressed, jacket and all.

"Okay, that's everyone and now for the final card, ladies and gents," Rukuriri announced and revealed the last card. "An eight of clubs, what's your call?"

_Bingo! Just what I needed _

The cards before that were an ace of spades, a king of spades, three of hearts, a knave of spades and finally eight of clubs. In her hand was a pair of black cards; an eight of spades and an ace of clubs, add the other ace and eight on the table and she got two pairs, a respectable hand.

"Check," she merely said. She was really sure she'd got this in the bag, this hand is going to be her golden ticket to the chocolate factory and it was quite the chocolate factory, for on the table a bar of Cadbury milk chocolate, a box of Twinning's high-quality tea, a pack of Digestives and a can of Pringle crisps were among the many things that would serve as the laurels to whoever would win this bout. But it wasn't just food, for there was also a Scallop Card, a card used to pay for public transportation onboard the _Ark Royal_ and someone had even tossed in a mechanical pencil.

Others had already folded all except for the boot-wearing Roselle and another mechanic named Rooibos, who was known for being messy particularly when it came to repairing the tanks. In fact, the violet haired girl still stank of coolant after the mess caused by replacing one of the broken radiator pipes on the Covenanter tanks.

Meanwhile, Nilgiri, who was seated next to her, looked as if she got hit by a bus because she had already folded, preventing her from partaking in the final prize and costing her a jar of marmalade and an IOU for a fish and chips in the _Black Prince_, the carrier's onboard pub.

Rukuriri turned to Rooibos who merely nodded and turned to ask Roselle. "All in!" Roselle confidently declared, putting her boots in the play.

_Those boots were pretty valuable to her, is her hand really that good or is she bluffing? Might as well commit to it._

"I'm out of chips," she said, cursing herself for not buying more.

"You know the drill; IOUs," Rukuriri answered, handing her a sheaf of paper which she took a sheet from and wrote the words IOU then signed the paper, before placing it in the pool. She noticed Rooibos tossed a gift-baskets worth of foodstuffs and made the pot bigger than ever.

"Now reveal!" the Matilda Commander instructed them.

"Read it and weep baby!" the mechanic proclaimed, unfolding her cards, which were a three of diamonds and a knave of clubs.

"Two pairs, Jacks over threes," Rukuriri adjusted the cards, to show to the growing crowd of onlookers, who were probably attracted by the air of tension surrounding the table.

"Close, but no cigar, Rooibos-san" she smirked, showing her all-black pair of aces and eight.

"Higher two pairs! Aces over eights" The braided brunette discarded the earlier cards and placed hers alongside the other ace and eight.

Roselle laughed out loud, clutching her chest. "Both of you are already defeated!" She threw her cards on the table, a ten of spades and a queen of the same suit…. _A Royal Flush_. The highest hand in the game. Rosehip could have wept there and then, her two pairs didn't even stand a chance, it was like a deathmatch between a tiger and a house cat.

"Roselle wins! Rukuriri announced unnecessarily, as the former started sweeping the prize towards her, an ecstatic look on her face, accompanied by a wide grin that stretched ear to ear.

"ALARM!"

A shout came forth from the jukebox, which was connected to a microphone worn by the lookout posted outside the door. Like a troupe of ballerinas, a flurry of activity was set off inside the lounge room, as they tried their best to hide the fact that the room was home to an illegal gambling den.

Frilly tablecloths were thrown over both the poker and snooker tables, their respective paraphernalia was hidden away. Billiard balls were hidden inside teapots, cue sticks were affixed with broom heads to disguise them as cleaning materials. She saw Rukuriri hastily stuff the deck down her chest as she herself helped Rosemallow arrange porcelain into the table, quickly filling them with lukewarm tea to make it seem as if they were having a tea party all along.

As the dartboard was reversed to reveal a clock, she realized it was already 31 minutes past 5 o'clock in the afternoon, which meant it was already late and it was probably dark outside. That was the other downside of this room, it had no windows, robbing them of the ability to glance outside.

She took a seat, lifting the teacup and took a sip. In no time, their little _maskirovka _was done. It wasn't U-boat crew fast, but fast enough for a bunch of high schoolers. When the door opened, the cause of the alarm walked in, and it was none other than Assam-senpai.

"Excuse me, I'm sorry if I'm interrupting you ladies, but I have been looking for Rosehip-san, does she happen to be here?"

_Assam-senpai was looking for her?! Did she do something wrong? Maybe they incorrectly restored the Covenanter tanks? Did she change her mind about them being accompanying her to Shamrock?_

These thoughts raced through her mind, till a kick to the shin courtesy of Roselle brought her back to reality. A simple "Hai!" was the only thing she could mutter as she looked down at her hands and found she was shaking so badly she spilt half the content of her teacup on to her own clothes.

"Great, would you come with me, we have something important to discuss," her senpai simply said, walking outside and doubtlessly waiting for her. She placed the almost empty teacup at the table and fetched her jacket from the back of the chair. She could feel the eyes of everyone on her, looking at her with curiosity, pity or in Roselle's case, a punchable smirk.

Rosehip walked out of the door and closed the door. Assam was leaning on a walk in front of her and held out a handkerchief, which she promptly took to wipe herself dry.

"I must say, I'm impressed, to do so much in such short notice," Assam said, taking back the handkerchief she let her borrow.

"I beg your pardon?" _Does she know about the lounge room?_ she thought _How could she bloody know? Were they too obvious? _

"Stop feigning innocence, I know that you just finished playing poker and that you lost too." Assam giggled, which would have been cute if not for the present situation.

"There's no use hiding anything from you, is there?" she sighed, Assam-senpai strikes again.

"Not quite, you just happen to forget to return my pen earlier." Assam calmly explained, starting to walk and she finished up cleaning her skirt to catch up.

Oh! Before they started the journey towards the centre of the carrier, Assam had her sign some documents needed for their trip. She was so busy the entire day, that she had forgotten about it, till now.

Rosehip reached into her pocket and pulled out the fountain pen, examining it in the dying light of the sun. "I knew these things have a camera!" she said, triumphantly, waving it around.

"Not quite, you can actually learn a lot just by listening carefully, like how Roselle is surely counting cards." Assam outstretched her hand, waiting for her to give back her pen and cracked a smile as she gave it to her.

Anger flashed through her face, followed by confusion. "Roselle is doing what?!"

_That slimeball! _She thought as she clenched her fists hard, ready to get back at that cheating scumbag, until a hand was placed on her shoulder, from her senpai obviously, and even without uttering a word, it made her calm down.

"How can you say that anyways?" The gesture warmed up her insides and dissipated her anger, allowing reason to work its way through her mind.

"Ever wonder why out of all the people in the table, she was the only one who didn't remove her Senshadou jacket, not to mention your other friend Rosemallow frequented her the most." Assam-senpai patiently explained, crossing the road as they went.

"Are you really sure those things don't have a camera and where are we going, anyway? The Tea Garden is over there isn't it?" She pointed to her back. The tank garage, and therefore their lounge shed as well, was only walking distance away from the Senshadou headquarters, but not too near as to disturb the activities held inside the Tea Garden with the noise made from repairing and maintaining the tanks, but also not too far so that the girls could mount their vehicles during emergencies.

"Yeah, these are my own creations so I'm 100 per cent certain and we'll be taking a long cut." Assam started to hum to herself, a skip in her step.

"And why is that? It's almost dark," she replied, looking up and was not surprised to see the moon slowly overtaking the sun.

Assam just smiled and said. "You'll see." They walked for a few more minutes before they sighted the entrance to _Hydette Park,_ St Gloriana's largest green space onboard, it was nothing compared to its counterpart in the middle of London, of course. The sizable park was, however, filled with trees, bushes that could be used to hide super-heavy tanks and even a lake, which according to rumours still held an amphibious Valentine tank that sank after its first trial.

A lot of people were out and about, enjoying a late-afternoon walk, chatting, with not a care in the world. Children played in the playground while their parents sat on picnic blankets laid down on the grass as the last vestiges of the spring cherry blossoms fell down on all of them.

"By the way, we're even, that _Konpeito_ was my treat so don't expect me to still treat you," her mentor said, who must have guessed that she was looking at a nearby food cart selling some fish and chips. She continued following her till she bumped into her after she hadn't noticed her stopping.

In front of them, was a girl wearing a uniform similar to the one they were wearing, standing behind a raised podium, which Assam had called the Speaker's Corner. The girl in question was speaking to a small group of disinterested people. She wondered who that girl was, as she looked very familiar, till the girl's bright green eyes darted towards them and she then remembered the timid eyes of Darjeeling-sama's driver, Ruhuna-san.

"T-the title of my last poem is…. uhmm." Ruhuna looked at a piece of paper, anxious about now having her teammate watching, in addition to the bunch in front of her

"You can do it, Ruhuna-san!" Rosehip heard Assam whisper under her breath, encouraging the socially awkward girl who she herself had personally never really talked to.

The green-eyed girl took a deep breath and continued. "The title of my last poem is I'll Be Your Beach."

She giggled at that, her senpai just rolled her eyes, "You and your dirty mind."

_Your mind is so full of troubles and fears_

_That diminished your wonder over the years_

_But today I have a special place_

_A beach for us to go._

_A shore reaching beyond your sight_

_A sea that sparkles with brilliant light_

_The walls in your mind will melt away_

_Before the sunny glow._

Once she got into it, Ruhuna delivered the poem perfectly, a shine in her eyes that wasn't there when she encountered her during classes or at practices.

_I'll be the beach that washes your worries away_

_I'll be the beach that you daydream about each day_

_I'll be the beach that makes your heart leap_

_In a way you thought had left you long ago._

_Let's bury your heavy thoughts in a pile of sand_

_Bathe in sunbeams and hold my hand_

_Wash your insecurities in the salty sea_

_And let me see you shine._

The people now began to take notice and the crowd gradually grew, if Ruhuna was getting nervous, she was doing quite well in hiding it.

_Let's leave your memories in a footprint trail_

_Set you free in my windy sail_

_And remember the reasons you're wonderful_

_When you press your lips to mine._

_I'll be the beach that washes your worries away_

_I'll be the beach that you daydream about each day_

_I'll be the beach that makes your heart leap_

_In a way you thought had left you long ago._

_But if you let me by your side_

_Your own beach, your own escape_

_You'll learn to love yourself again_.

Ruhuna got off the podium amid a sea of clapping, amongst them was her and Assam, who stayed on the edge of the crowd, never going too near but not so much as to keep sight of the speaker.

"That was amazing, Assam-senpai, but I don't understand, why did you have to take me all the way to here?"

"You seem to have a lot in your mind, often a good poem does help in keeping me calm."

"Thanks, but I didn't know Ruhuna was such a skilled poet! How did you know about it?"

"Well, back when we were in our first years, I happened to catch her practising Sonnet 18 and ever since then I've been watching over her with great interest."

"Isn't that stalking?"

Assam blushed, turning her head away from her. "No, it's not! It's not like I'm causing harm or anything!"

The two of them walked in silence for a while, making their way back to the Tea Garden and in no time, they had reached the building. They passed the empty tea room and headed to the Commander's office. Her senpai rasped on the door three times and then opened the door.

It had never occurred to her that she had never been inside Darjeeling-sama's office before and was surprised at how spacious it was. It was probably bigger than the entire flat she shared with the other three at the Covent Garden district on the carrier's East End.

As it turned out, Darjeeling-sama was not alone, for with her was a man dressed in overalls, who was on all fours cutting up the carpet that lined the floor. The man had already removed about three-quarters of the room's covering, which had all been rolled up in large cinnamon roll-like cylinders, leaving the floor looking like a hairless cat.

"Oh, Assam and Rosehip, come in, would you like anything to drink?" Darjeeling-sama said, looking up from the piece of paper she was reading.

"Well, if you offered me Scotch and plain water, I'd drink Scotch and plain water," her senpai replied, eliciting a smile from Darjeeling-sama.

_Must have been an inside joke between the two of them?_

"Alright, let me just call Bohea." Their commander picked up a golden tea bell from the corner of her desk and rang it.

Immediately, a side-door opened and the head of Gloriana's Royal Maid Corp, Bohea, entered the room, all dressed up in her pressed black skirt and starched white apron. Originally a member of the school's Tea Club and ever since made an honorary member of the Tea Garden, the white-haired girl looked smart in her servant outfit, not downright silly like the time Darjeeling-sama wore one for their tea party.

"Can you get these two fine ladies each a cup of tea and-" Darjeeling-sama looked at the clock at the mantelpiece, which showed that it was a few minutes before six in the afternoon- "since it's pretty late, can you serve as dinner as well?"

"As you wish, Darjeeling-goshunjinsama," the maid acknowledged, bowing, bending a knee and holding her skirt slightly up all at the same time, before closing the door behind her.

"Hey Miss Darjeeling, you want to leave a little strip? Maybe a lightning bolt? Unicorn? Something like that?" The carpet remover pointed to a small piece of carpet in the corner.

"No, I want all of it replaced."

"Alright, we're going Brazilian." The man began attacking the strip with his specialized tools, much to Rosehip's own wonder.

"She just had to spill champagne on it, now where were we?" Darjeeling sighed and began clearing the paperwork from her desk, arranging them into neat little stacks before placing them underneath a small object that looked like a British Mark IV WW1 tank.

"Interested in the paperweight? My sister got it for me on my birthday. It came all the way fro- Darjeeling-sama was explaining, a weird glint from her eyes, but was abruptly cut off by a cough from Assam. "Oh, I was just on the phone with the captain and he was kind enough to lend us one of the carrier's _Providence-_class transport ships. It will take around a day to go from here to HMS Unicorn.

"That long? Isn't there another way?" she found herself asking.

"We could have leased one of Saunder's Super Galaxies but not at such short notice and Shamrock's residents wouldn't want a 170-ton transport aircraft ruining their weekend." Darjeeling-sama smiled and then frowned again. "Why don't you have a seat, I'm afraid this meeting could take a while, that's why I asked Bohea-san to get us something to eat as well."

They took the wooden chairs in front of Commander's desk, where her lower stance had allowed her to watch Darjeeling-sama's exquisite blue eyes scrutinised the two of them before they resumed the conversation.

"That's transportation settled with and that leaves us with only one important matter unresolved. I talked to my counterpart a while back and she would be glad to receive you and your gifts. However, their student council had made it clear that no tanks shall be seen threading their tracks through the streets of Shamrock. Transporting four tanks is already a logistical nightmare, adding their transporters could possibly overload the ferry," Darjeeling-sama told with exasperation.

An idea popped inside her head and she stood up before she said what was on her mind. "We can recreate the Sunshields used in Operation Bertram." She suggested and noticed Darjeeling's questioning looks while her senpai nodded in agreement.

Rosehip had done research on the tanks she had commanded of course and she had read about Operation Bertram, which was the deception plan that preceded a major offence at El Alamein, hiding units of the Eighth Army away from prying German eyes. One of them involved creating Sunshields, which were basically canvas and some metal sheets fashioned to resemble a lorry cab, and used to disguise tanks like Matildas and Crusaders, making them look like lorries to reconnaissance planes.

Assam had explained that for her and Darjeeling-sama looked on with interest, before writing down something on a pad of paper. "It is a wild idea to camouflage a tank to make it look like a lorry using a canvas screen. It would be quite useful, consider it approved and Rosehip-san, thank you for sharing such a brilliant idea, it would seem that Assam made no mistake in selecting you and your crew."

Rosehip's heart skipped a beat. That certainly sounded like praise coming from Darjeeling-taichou; looks like she forgot about that contraption after all.

"Now, if the necessary materials were to be ready by dawn tomorrow, how long would it take to disguise all the tanks involved? Darjeeling-sama asked her, those blue eyes of her perhaps assessing how well she could do the job.

"Well, depending on the cooperation of others, it can be done around supper time," she replied, confident in the skill of her crew.

A knock on the door made all three of them look at it before Darjeeling responded once again with a "Come in!" The door immediately opened and Bohea, along with two other maids came through, placing before them a hearty meal of Chicken Tikka Masala.

"Now before we all tuck in, Earl Grey-sama left behind a bottle of champagne that would be a waste to throw out. Now let's first have a toast to your luck before you depart."

* * *

**Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean  
****24th of April  
****8:47 PM**

The night sky, especially when viewed in the middle of the sea held a certain charm to it, the likes of which poets love to write about and left anyone witnessing it awestruck. It would have been the perfect spot for a confession of one's love or to just spend quality time with your special someone.

All of these buzzed through Rosehip's mind as she was very lucky to gaze at all this beauty with her beautiful Assam-senpai next to her, however, they were spending their time rather unromantically.

"I told you I'm fine, I don't nee-" Whatever protest her senpai was going to say was lost as her hand went over her mouth to prevent herself vomiting prematurely while she dashed over to the ship's railing and puked her dinner overboard.

Rosehip couldn't help but roll her eyes as she held her senpai's hair back while she was throwing up. With her other hand, she uncapped a bottle of water to give to Assam-senpai after puking for the nth time now.

She found it easier to deal with tanks than other human beings, which were now currently somewhere inside the ship, along with a last-minute guest. It was decided that their own Crusader be brought along since they were more comfortable using it and would be able to use it to guide the kids in operating their brand new sleigh.

She, her crew and her senpai, along with the cruiser tanks now disguised as lorries, boarded the HMS _Pinafore_ earlier that morning, being personally sent off by Darjeeling-sama herself, who was waving her silk handkerchief at them with Orange Pekoe next to her bidding them safety and luck on their arduous trip.

As it turns out, due to the _Ark Royal_'s massive size, the rolling waves of the ocean it sailed on were countermanded simply by its sheer magnitude, but not so much in a ship less than one-thousandth her size and so she found out that her senpai got seasick quite easily. In fact, they had spent the entire trip so far like this, Assam-senpai puking overboard while she tried her best to help.

Her senpai gestured for the bottle of water which Rosehip gave to her immediately as she readied her own handkerchief. As she had found out in the past, having a piece of cloth at a moment's notice was very practical and she had brought a stack of them before going on the trip. This one, unfortunately, smelt horrible, as she had used it to repeatedly wipe off excess barf from Assam-senpai's face.

It would probably be better to throw it all together rather than wash it, even if it meant throwing away something that came into contact with senpai''s precious face.

_What the fuck do you mean precious? The poor girl's literally throwing up everything she ate in the last 36 hours and all you can think of is how a hanky covered with all her puke is precious?!_ She sighed, she was becoming such a filthy degenerate.

Disgust must have passed over her face, as well as Assam-senpai, looked up over her shoulder, still looking a bit green and mumbled. "I'm sorry for troubling you Rosehip, I knew I should have told you beforehand…." and returned back to vomiting.

Rosehip wished Roselle was here to help her out but no luck there since the two of them had been snubbing each other ever since their argument. After being informed by Assam-senpai a few days ago, she immediately confronted Roselle, which wasn't really the best course of action now that she thought of it, and it escalated into a shouting match and would have been worse had it not been the timely intervention of Rosemallow-san.

_Where was Rosemallow-san anyways? Probably sleeping in her quarters or something._ Rosemallow was the de facto "senpai" of the Rosebush, keeping her and Roselle in check and had pulled them out of trouble more times than they could count. She had taken on the role of being the responsible one, reminding them of homework, or in most cases, letting them copy hers. She would have been the perfect person to ask for help in this, but alas, Rosehip wasn't so lucky although she could ask for a random person's help but that would be too awkward even for her.

After a few minutes, Assam-senpai's situation seemed to improve and Rosehip used the handkerchief to clean her up, promptly receiving thanks from her senpai.

"Ah, Rosehip, I've dropped my purse. Would it be too much to ask you to pick it up for me?" Assam requested, her vivid violet eyes vying for attention.

She responded back with an "Hai!" before bending over and picking up the various contents of the purse that had now been scattered across the ship's deck. Amongst them were an ornate coin purse, a small stainless steel box, a planner, a spray bottle of hand sanitizer, spare hair ribbons, some feminine articles and an elegant display case containing a single stamp.

A bit of research, they had found out that Shannon or Iona Yoshimura, was really fond of signatures, however, Darjeeling-sama said it would be a bit pretentious to send hers so through a subsequent searching of the Tea Garden's safe, they found a single magenta coloured stamp, with the label "British Guiana" written on it. Figuring it wouldn't be worth that much, they had decided to send it as a gift along with various tea blends, mixed by Pekoe herself and Darjeeling-sama even sent some jellied eels to go with it. They had long since returned the eels to the ocean, thinking Shamrock may consider that monstrosity a declaration of war rather than a symbol of peace.

She stood up and handed back Assam-senpai's purse, noticing how colour had slowly returned to the girl's face. Her senpai opened the purse to see if something was amiss before to her own surprise, opened her coin purse and extracted a coin that strangely shone even in the near-darkness they were in.

"This is a gold sovereign coin that came all the way from Britain. Keep it and take care of it." Assam held it out to her with both hands and which Rosehip gingerly accepted.

Before she could even ask a question, a girl her age, all dressed up in a Royal Navy sailor uniform came up to the two of them and said, "Ma'am, the captain sent me to inform you that we're an hour away from our destination."

"Thank you," Assam simply said. The girl in the sailor uniform turned around and left.

A moment of silence descended between the two of them, only the thrashing of the waves against the ship's keel and the soft whistle of the night breeze were the only sounds that filled the atmosphere. But the pause wasn't awkward or anything, rather it was very comfortable.

"Rosehip, I can't meet with the welcoming party looking like a mess, I'm going back to my quarters, care to walk with me?"

"Sure thing!"

The two of them began navigating the labyrinth insides of the ship, barely marked with any signs or symbols that would help in their passage.

"Tell me Rosehip, what are you afraid of?" Assam had casually asked as they both ducked to avoid hitting their heads in some low hanging pipes.

_Don't tell me she knows about that as well?!_

Trying to stay cool, Rosehip racked her brain for an answer and decided it would be best to humour her way through.

"I was afraid we would hit an iceberg and sink!"

The night before they left St Gloriana, the entire Senshadou Team went to the pictures to partake in the monthly movie viewing party and the film chosen was Titanic, a movie about a bloody big ship that struck a bloody big iceberg and sank in the bloody big Atlantic.

She couldn't care less about the film and would rather have slept in early to have the energy for tomorrow's voyage but it was one of those social events that would be scandalous to miss, not to mention her position as the overall Crusader Wing commander forced her to sit through the three hours long film.

The start of the film was rather dull, with all the science stuff that ended up being just a treasure hunt for a long lost diamond. But after that, she found it rather enjoyable, especially when Jack was introduced. Not only was he good at cards, not having to rely on cheating to win like some brown-haired fiend, but also his shenanigans and social status that reflected hers as well. Speaking of cheating, one salty girl behind her kept on kicking the back of her chair with heavy cavalry boots and pelted her hair with popcorn seeds.

As much as she would like to stand up and whack the mischievous culprit, she was seated next to Darjeeling-sama herself and any more transgressions would have had her sent off to Coventry. Fortunately, someone had her back and did it for her, and it was all the more satisfying to hear that smack while she tried her best not to giggle.

Being next to Darjeeling-sama had its perks though, like when the "Draw me like one of your French girls" scene came on screen. It was where the rich girl laid naked on the sofa, wearing only her shiny necklace and was drawn by Jack. Darjeeling-sama had turned beet red and tried to stop the movie, while she and Rukuriri, who was seated on her right, were secretly laughing their arses off.

During the movie's climactic sinking and the subsequent panic where Jack sacrifices himself to save the girl of his dreams, Darjeeling was quietly sobbing into her handkerchief and even unconsciously held Rosehip's arm, crushing it. It took all her willpower not to flinch.

Assam-senpai was unfortunately on the other side next to Orange Pekoe but she did pull her for a bit after the screening to remind her to be on time and to pack a bit of clothing for their stay, not that it was needed, considering she was ready as she could be.

Now the blonde had a laugh and actually looked quite healthy despite being seasick like crazy a few moments ago "Don't be silly, we're in the Pacific, not to mention we melted pretty much all the icebergs," her senpai replied, always having a soft spot for corny jokes. They continued walking for a bit, till they reached her accommodation. "I'll be quick, just wait outside and no peeking!"

"Don't worry, I'll stand around here all day like the Queen's Guards if I have to!"

After a few minutes, she quickly grew bored and began mulling over the idea of checking up on her senpai.

_What's taking her so long? It's not exactly far-fetched for her to get into trouble considering how delicate her condition was._

_Maybe I'll have a look to see if everything's alright._

_Don't be stupid! She'd get angry if she spots you._

_But what if she needs my help…._

_That's it, to hell with the consequences!_

With her mind now set, she approached the door and checked to see if the door was locked by turning the knob. After it had turned all the way through- _which was really weird_ -she slowly pushed the door open enough for her to have a look inside with as little as possible chance of being spotted.

Her senpai had her back against her, sitting on a stool, while she combed her blonde hair, humming a tune as she went, reminding her of a Disney movie that she had watched years back. Assam-senpai's petite figure was only hidden by a towel as Rosehip's eyes bulged out of its sockets in shock. She had never seen another woman dressed down to that degree and it came with an unexplainable thrill that made her sweat profusely.

Suddenly, someone had unceremoniously yanked her back and closed the door. Rosehip was about to protest until a hard smack sent her reeling and brought her back to the real world.

"Well? Tell me what I saw was not what I think it is?' Rosemallow asked in a grumpy voice, the same one she used when scolding them, complete with the _arms folded in front of her chest_ position, but this time, a rolled-up copy of today's paper was in one of her hands, no doubt the weapon that had she had used to hit her.

Rosehip tried to reason but no words came forth and she must have looked like a child caught stealing from a cookie jar for her orange-haired loader made a loud sigh.

"Pervert, I know we all make mistakes in the heat of passion, however always remember to think using this-" Rosemallow poked her forehead with the newspaper -"and not this." before using it to gesture to the in-between of her legs.

Her mouth finally worked again and she managed to reason out. "But I wasn't peeking on her! I was just checking on her to see if she needs my assistance!"

Rosemallow looked at her intensely, making her slightly cower away, the height difference didn't help in any case. "Since I don't see the usual signs of you lying, I'll believe you're telling the truth. Now I believe Assam-senpai have been puking all-day long, am I correct?"

"Yeah…."

"Seasickness?"

"Yup."

"Poor girl, maybe this will help?" Rosemallow unslung her bag and took a sheet of pills from the side pocket. "Motion sickness pills, you should have asked me beforehand and remember, she needs to have a full stomach before drinking it."

Her loader paused for a second as she opened her bag once more and extracted a Tupperware filled with cupcakes, before taking one and handing it to her.

"Ah, a cupcake." She held it gingerly by the foil, examining it carefully, the exterior of the pastry was filled with pepper-like seeds and glazed with thick white cream on top.

"No silly, it's a muffin, and not just any muffin it's our family's special poppyseed muffin!"

"Can I have one as well?" she asked, the mere sight of the treat made her hungry, as always. Rosemallow was like a magician, pulling out treats from her hamper every day; it was a miracle she still could fit through the commander's hatch.

"No, it's your punishment for doing something brash again."

"Awwwwwwwww, pretty please?"

"Fine…." Rosemallow procured another one and handed it to her, scarfing the pastry down as soon as she received it, relishing the tangy taste of the lemons in the muffin that left her smacking her lips afterwards.

"Mhmmmmmmmmm, delicious!"

"Now, I'll be off, if you need me, I'll be at the bow. By the way, when you're done taking care of Assam-senpai, I think Roselle has something to say to you." Her loader gave her a wink and went off on her way.

Not a minute passed when the door cracked open and her senpai stepped out of her quarters, all dressed in a new shiny Senshadou uniform.

"I'm back, sorry if you have to wait, oh what's that?" Assam pointed at the articles she held.

"Rosemallow-san passed-by and gave me some medicine for seasickness but you have to first eat something before you take it," She replied, holding out the pastry to her senpai, which she promptly received.

Assam took the muffin from the foil and split it evenly in the centre. "I'm pretty sure you're hungry as well and I can't bear to eat with someone else watching me, so here."

"No, it's fine."

"Ey, I washed my hands!" Her senpai cracked a smile. "Don't tell me you want me to feed it to you?" She asked, with a wide smirk on her face.

_Ah, the battle of wits, well, two can play at that game_

She performed a mock bow and replied: "Why, yes, your majesty."

For a split second, she saw that Assam-senpai was taken back, but it was soon replaced with a mischievous grin. "Kinky as that request may be, I am an amenable ruler."

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Rosehip closed her eyes and opened her mouth, deciding to just go with the flow. In a few moments, she felt her senpai gingerly placed the piece of pastry inside her mouth, its already familiar flavour eagerly seeping through her tongue.

She was surprised when after she bit down, she felt something hard and a yelp in front of her made her open her eyes. Assam-senpai wiggled her index finger, which she had most likely bitten, tears in the corner of her eyes.

"Ahhhhh, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

After what felt like an eternity, Assam-senpai finally responded. "If you don't mind, I will talk to the captain about the cargo," and then left the scene.

Rosehip immediately felt glum and mentally kicked herself for messing up so badly.

_You fucked up bad! How could you mess up so badly?!_

Feeling dejected, she began to zigzag across the corridors, her feet taking her to somewhere she didn't know. While walking she saw that Roselle's door was ajar, if it not for their argument, she would have gone straight to her to drown her sorrows and ask for advice. Roselle, despite being a wild spirit, was the go-to person you could approach, especially at times when you needed reassurance the most.

_But not this time around…. She probably loathes you now more than ever._

She was about to steer clear of the door, then remembered what Rosemallow-san said. So she began weighing the opinions until Roselle made the decision for her, who popped her head out of the doorframe.

"Ah, I knew it was you, you're the only one who can make walking as noisy as a horse galloping against cobblestone."

She merely looked at her driver's usual cheery face and couldn't bear herself to say a word.

"I know it's not much, but I hope this will make you feel better." Roselle stretched out her hand, in it a Wagon Wheel.

She walked the distance and took the treat. "It's fine, I'm not angry at you anymore."

Roselle frowned and asked. "Then why the long face?"

Rosehip began telling the tale of what happened earlier, from getting caught by Rosemallow-san to the embarrassment she inflicted on her senpai. Roselle began laughing hard, clutching her side before finally stopping but still continued to giggle as she spoke.

"Ah, my spleen. My God, Rosehip, I wasn't at your side for a few days and these things happened!"

The two of them continued to banter while walking through the insides of the ship, eventually finding themselves at the bow of the ship where a smiling Rosemallow looked at them with interest and asked. "Friends again?"

"Not quite," Roselle answered back, but a grin on her face betrayed her.

"Come here you two!" Rosemallow shouted and pulled both of them into a bear hug that probably crushed a few of her ribs. "This calls for a celebratory muffin!"

Both she and Roselle suddenly had ear-wide grins and pleading eyes as they outstretched their hands looking on like kittens waiting to be fed.

Later when their hearts and stomach were filled, Rosemallow confessed that she was the one who hit Roselle last night and they even recreated the scene in the movie they watched where they each took turns standing above the railing and shouting the lines.

"Say, what would Rosemary say if she was here?" she asked, thinking of how her poor gunner was missing out on the fun here

Roselle simply shrugged and said, "She'd probably complain about the waves or something." bursting into a hearty laugh afterwards.

From the mist, a ship-like shape took form. It wasn't as big as the _Ark Royal _but what made it peculiar is that the entire bloody ship was painted green.

"Well, that's probably Shamrock, can't wait to get off this boat!" Rosemallow yawned, probably looking forward to a goodnight's sleep.

"Hear hear," she replied. _It would also make sure that Assam-senpai wouldn't get seasick as well._

"Hey Rosehip!" Roselle called her out.

"Yeah?"

"You smell like puke, it would be best if you change your clothes, you stink bomb!"

"That's rude of you! I'll deal with you once I'm done." Rosehip said, before dashing off back to her own room to change, making a mental note to lock the door first, in case karma came peeking.

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Well, that's all for today! I hope you caught all the Easter eggs and references, speaking of Easter eggs, Happy Easter everyone and to those that don't celebrate Easter, stay frosty~

**P.S: **Special thanks to those who helped me along the way. Sharky, Shrimpy, Crabby and other non-sea foods ones like Niko, Clarky, Galilool, Monty and of course, you, my dear reader who have patiently waited for an update. Till next time then~

**P.S.S: (08/04/20) **Hai hai, more edits, most of which in the last part of the chapter, making it overall easier to read, I hope. On the next chapter then!

**P.S.S.S: (08/10/20) **Moar Edits!


	6. Chapter 5: The Party In The Irish Pub

**Author's Note:** I know this wasn't here before, but I forgot one big thing. If this chapter looked a bit different from the previous two, that's because I decided to set aside the three sub-chapters approach and return to the traditional one long one. Not only will it take the toll out of piecing together three different events but also drastically cut the writing time for every chapter. But like I said before, I just experimented with that and if you have a preference, please do tell.

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**Chapter 5  
****_First Class Party in the Irish Pub_**

**Aboard HMS Unicorn  
****Shamrock Girls High School  
****10:12 PM**

_Shamrock had a distinctive atmosphere that made it different to St Gloriana or any other school carrier for that matter or at least the ones she had visited._

Maybe it was the fact that most of the carrier was covered in lush green vegetation or the fact that everywhere she looked, everything was coated in some form of the colour green; from the lamp posts that lit the mostly empty streets to the uniform of their chauffeur, Assam thought to herself while she sat on the front seat of a Rolls Royce Silver Wraith, the same staff car used by the late General Montgomery.

She had instantly recognized the make and model of the car, being a car enthusiast and all, something she had in common with her father. The Rolls Royce sped through the roads, driving on the left, the same as with Gloriana and the mainland but which had long caused confusion during foreign port calls. The car was driven by a girl who introduced herself as Clare and reminded her very much of Orange Pekoe.

Both had the same fed-up look that Assam had long attributed to second-in-commands, especially those with cuckoo commanders. The similarities don't stop there, however, as both were ginger heads as well, although Clare's was darker and longer whereas Pekoe wore hers shorter and usually tied into a braided bun with such complexity that more often than not left her scratching her head. There was also the difference in their height, with Pekoe being shorter than her while Clare towered over her.

She looked at the backseat of the luxury car and smiled at the sleeping trio. Because the car had no canopy so to speak of, the salty sea breeze whipped their faces, causing the three to fall asleep. Poor Rosemallow was sandwiched between Rosehip and Roselle on either side and had no choice but to sleep as well.

Assam suppressed a giggle as she remembered the incident earlier where they had just met Clare, and she was sure that it would be one of her takeaway memories from this trip. It just goes to show how quirky the bunch were.

It was after they had arrived, loaded with their carry-ons and four 20 ton tanks, Rosehip had gotten impatient and begun to play tag with Roselle. While trying to get away from her driver, who was hot on her heels, the pink-haired girl had bumped into a taller woman, who, unfortunately, hadn't had big enough breasts to cushion the crash, which led both of them falling onto the floor.

After a bit of awkward apologising and helping each other up, they found out that the girl's name was Clare, and she was one sent to meet up with them. Clare was dressed up in a completely green uniform complete with a large beret that had a bit of what looked like ostrich feathers dipped in green paint sticking up in front of it.

"I do apologise for the rather lacklustre welcom-" Clare was saying when Roselle had popped out of a corner and in between ragged breaths shouted, "There you are! Get ready to lose!" before she caught sight of the girl before them and performed a skid that would have been at home at an ice rink, stopped in front of Clare, took her hands and shook it vigorously, all with a peculiar glare in her eyes.

"Hi! My name's Roselle, would you like to grab coffee with me? My number is-" But whatever her phone number was, Assam would never know as a hard pinch in the ear, performed by none other than Rosemallow, and sent her apologising while yelping in pain and glaring at her teammate before she remembered the girl in front of her and adopted a smile that would have been charming if it not for the watery edges of her eyes.

Clare had informed them that the school's logistics department would take care of the cruiser tanks (she had looked more excitedly at the tanks than at them) and led them into a flight of stairs that took them straight up to the carrier deck, where the Rolls Royce was waiting. Stowing what little luggage they had in the boot, they went inside and drove off.

"Miss Assam?" Clare had asked while she effortlessly changed gears.

"Yes?" Assam replied as she tried to dissipate her thoughts from earlier.

"I was asking if you want to go straight to the hotel or meet Shannon. You chose quite an odd time and date to visit. You see, today is the eighteenth birthday of one of our members, and we've spent the entire night partying, that would explain why I'm the only one who welcomed you," the girl rambled on, doing more talking and seemed to focus less on driving, but Assam didn't dare voice any protest.

As much as she wanted to fall into a bed and sleep, professionalism dictated that it was best to meet their contact as soon as possible.

"If I chose to meet with Iona, sorry, I mean Shannon, where would you take us?"

"Since it's still early, they would still be at the pub, where we could give you a proper Irish welcome," Clare smiled. She was a pretty normal girl, normal in the sense that nothing made her stand out amongst the crowd. Well, except her eyes, those chocolate coloured eyes, which seemed to penetrate you when they stared at you and behind them was a fierce intellect, locked behind for fear of being ostracised by the same crowd. Assam knew, of course, because more often than not she saw it too when she looked in the mirror.

"Meeting her tonight would be fine if that isn't too much. Say, what about our lodgings for our stay here?"

"Your accommodations will be handled by the school. In fact, after I drop you off at the pub, I should be able to deliver your luggage straight to the hotel," Clare replied as she pulled the luxury car into a seemingly empty parking lot; empty except for a bunch of British interwar tanks and a single early war tank, in the form of a Valentine Mk III, all parked in front of a low building with lots of muffled music coming from within.

_Huh…They brought their tanks out just for a party….Weird… Darjeeling would have had a fit if someone did that back home_

Clare parked the Silver Wrath next to a Vickers A1E1 Independent, an interwar multi-turreted tank design that kickstarted other similar tank designs of the era, from the German _Neubaufahrzeug _to the Soviet T-28. It already spoke volumes about the school's team, as they seemed to lack proper tanks, as this one alone couldn't stand a chance against a Crusader, much less the Churchill.

The tank was as long as a bus and overall it all had qualities a tanker would find _undesirable_. It was big, it was slow, hard to manoeuvre, had a mediocre gun and its multi-turreted design caused confusion to the poor soul commanding it. The officers who watched the first and last trial of the tank suggested having holes on both sides, big enough for a stretcher to be brought inside the vehicle. Talk about confidence!

Parked on the other side of the lot was a Vickers Mk D, an offshoot of the Vickers Medium Mark II project built for the Irish Free State that featured a stronger, water-cooled, petrol engine along with a 6 pounder gun and all the Vickers .303 machine guns the tank could carry. Not much could be said about it, a slight improvement, yes, but nothing the heavy tanks of Gloriana would have any difficulty dealing with.

The only tank of note amongst the trio was the Valentine Mk III, the first Valentine variant that equipped the three-man turret, giving way for a loader to make the life of the commander less hellish, allowing him to solely focus on commanding rather than having to load 40mm shells into the potent 2 pounder gun as well. With a skilled crew, it could go toe and toe with the Crusaders and could hold itself quite well against the Churchill.

"Here we are at the _Hare's Head _ma'am!" Clare cheerfully said, before suddenly dropping her voice into a barely audible whisper as she looked at her in the eyes. "A fair word of warning though, not everyone here agrees to the captain's decision to welcome your envoy. But please, don't let it affect your visit here and enjoy our hospitality."

_Guess Earl-Grey sama was right after all_

"Thought you would appreciate the heads-up," Clare added, seeing her pensive look."

"Could you go inside and inform Shannon of our arrival?" was the only thing she could reply.

"Aye," Clare said as she got out of the car and walked the short length to the pub's door, pushed it open and disappeared inside.

_Finally alone_

Assam took a deep breath and looked back at the three. They looked so sweet and innocent, it would be a real shame to wake them up, especially Rosehip.

_Not so naughty now, are we?_

She reached out and gingerly placed her hand on the girl's cheek and began to relish the smooth silky skin of her _kouhai_. And she stood there; for a minute, an hour, a year, a decade, she didn't know and frankly, she didn't care. Time froze and eternity could have passed for all she knew.

In her overzealousness, she accidentally pinched the redhead's cheek, causing Rosehip to stir and mutter. "Yamete, onee-chan," and she quickly withdrew her hand.

The pink-haired girl sat up and looked at her with those orange-tinted eyes.

"Assam-_senpai_? Where are we and why are you blushing so much?

"The cold winds just make my cheeks flush and my scarf is still in my luggage. We're now outside Shamrock's pub and we'll go in a few minutes so it's best to wake up Roselle-san and Rosemallow-san.

_That was close_

After a while, when the rest had been woken from their slumber, Clare returned and told them Shannon was ready to meet them before she threw a question at them.

"Say, I know it's all of a sudden but I do hope you brought a present?"

The four of them looked at one another. Fortunately, they came prepared as other than the stamp and tea blends, they also packed expensive teacups and Assam retrieved one. The cup was placed in a transparent plastic case and was made with the finest porcelain, or so the shopkeeper said. Rosemallow produced a length of ribbon and with a bit of work, the box was more pleasing to the eye.

With one last intake of cold air, Assam steeled herself as she followed Clare inside, gripping the small box with her two hands. It was like entering a portal to another dimension, the music increased tenfold as she heard the door closed behind them. The smell hit her hard first, the scent of polished wood mingled in the air with the combined musk of over a dozen people locked up in a room for hours at end.

Most of the bar's tables had been used to form a long one and on it was the remnants of what was probably a hearty dinner; plates littered with refuse, soup bowls drained of their contents and a platter, based on the frosting in it and around it, along with a sullen knife next to it, that once held a cake of sorts. But what caught her eyes were a large number of pint glasses, which would suggest alcohol was somehow involved in this party or probably not, if this school had the same regulations back home.

However, the tables were now abandoned as most of the guests took pleasure in dancing on the area cleared by the tables, accompanied by the cheery music Assam had been hearing ever since they arrived, played forth by a band cooped up on the stage. The most energetic of the group twirled around like a ballerina while playing the fiddle, swaying from the tunes she produced, her short orange hair bouncing behind her. Next to her sat upon a stool, was a girl wielding some sort of bagpipe-like instrument and seemed like the ballerina's elder sister or something. This one wore a cone hat on top of her similarly orange-coloured hair, the kind of hat restaurants force you to wear if you are celebrating your birthday on the premises.

_So this is our birthday girl__ then_

The next one had a different hair colour, black, although it had dyed streaks on it that would give a Gloriana guidance counsellor a heart attack. This girl held an accordion and was the source of much-needed contrast to the other instruments.

Assam would have studied the band further had she not realized that they had stopped playing and subsequently caused the dancers to pause as well as the two groups now engaged in an uneasy stand-off waiting for who would be the first to take a shot.

A scuffle ensued in the other group as someone tried to make their way through the crowd. Moments after, a small figure emerged, looking quite silly with cake frosting on her eyebrows and hair. Assam breathed a sigh of relief; minus the frosting, she recognized the face. It matched the photograph Earl-Grey-sama had provided them, which she had an intense staring contest with a few nights prior. The girl was none other than Iona Yoshimura herself, also known as Shannon.

"Herro, Gud evening. My name is Shannon, naisu to meat yah!" the girl introduced herself in terribly broken English, meanwhile, Clare next to her uttered what sounded a small whimper and hid her face in her palms, before running off to Shannon's side and whispering something into the shorter girl's ears; no small feat since Clare was taller by a wide margin and she had to bend her knees just to alight her mouth with the girl's ears.

Shannon looked on in disbelief and sternly asked Clare to repeat herself, and when she seemed to understand, she looked again at the group in front her and cleared her throat.

"Sorry, sorry, I mistook you for foreigners! I'm Shannon, captain of our Senshadou team. Welcome to Shamrock!" Shannon said, now in the common tongue, before approaching them and placing both her hands on Assam's shoulders and gently planting her freckled cheeks on both sides of her Assam's face, much to Assam's surprise.

And just like that, the perceived veil of hostility came crashing down like a wall, uniting both sides, or at least most of them. Several girls still wore a wary expression of distrust, amongst them the birthday girl herself, who was glaring at her, piercing her soul.

"And this must be the renowned Rosehip and her crew! It's an honour." She repeated the process on Rosehip, but this time had to tiptoe to reach the redhead's cheeks, lingering a bit longer that made Assam uncomfortable.

"You've met my second in command, Clare, now get ready to meet my trusty third in command and tonight's birthday celebrant, Erne! Come here you oldie!" Shannon beckoned to the girl on the stage, who gently replaced the pipes on her stool.

"Jeez, Shannon, I just turned 18 today, it's not like I'm an old prune or anything already. Heya, I'm Erne, nice to meet you all!" Erne said, flashing a visibly fake smile.

"Happy Birthday, Erne, we brought you a present!" Assam smiled but had years of practice of making such smiles and it came forth effortlessly. Why would this girl and others be so cold to them? Had they committed some _faux pas_? Maybe she shouldn't have forced them to crash someone's party?

A slight movement from her flank stopped her from letting her thoughts run riot. Rosehip had nudged her side, apparently, she still hadn't handed the gift over and Erne's hands were outstretched, ready to receive it, looking kinda sheepish.

"Ah, my bad, still a bit groggy. Hope you love it! We didn't know what you would want, so we hope it is up to your liking. She handed the box over and was pretty amused at how the masquerade fell and a sweet genuine smile replaced it.

"A teacup, how thoughtful of you and this pretty…" Erne said, muttering the last bit with a mere whisper.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last bit?" Assam asked on a bid to hear the rest of what the ginger was saying.

"I said it's pretty elegant, as expected of you St Gloriana students. Now, since it's my birthday, would you like anything to drink or eat perhaps?"

"We just had dinner back at the ferry-" Before she could finish, Erne had slithered her arm around her shoulders and shouted. "Drinks it is then! Laune, bring five more pints for our guests!"

Assam tried to protest that she didn't drink but it fell on deaf ears as the upbeat tunes returned, louder than ever. She tried looking for support from her companions, but they either didn't know what a pint was or by the look on Rosehip's face, knew exactly what Erne was talking about.

They all settled down on a table that was quickly cleared clean and began to break the ice, wanting to know more about the other, out of general curiosity or a hidden motive, who knew. Most of the guests on the dance floor also joined in, happy to take a break from all the dancing. The drinks came not long after, delivered by another orange-haired girl _('what is it with this school and orange heads?'_she thought) but the colour this time is toned down into a shade that was truly like Pekoe's hair. A cold glass was placed in front of her, filled to the brim with an amber coloured liquid with a thin line of foam on top. Beer.

The drinking age in Japan is 20 years old, a fact that school girls her age liked to bitch about, considering it is 18 in the United Kingdom; but remove the poshness and the tea, the fact remained that they were still a Japanese school. Assam, however, other than the champagne Earl Grey-sama had given them, had no other ordeals with alcoholic drinks, so she has no qualms.

A commotion arose next to her as the barmaid bringing up the drinks spilt beer on Rosehip, staining the redhead's Senshadou jacket with the foul-smelling concoction. After some hastily made apologies and offers for towels, Rosehip accepted the girl's apology and simply removed her jacket, wearing only her blouse just like when she played card games in the lounge shed.

"Please forgive Laune, she's really clumsy, now perhaps a toast," Shannon said, hoping to defuse the situation before it got critical.

"What should we drink to, ma'am?" Roselle pitched in, holding her glass expertly in one hand, while Rosemallow next to her cautiously gripped it with both hands, eyes wide in fascination and suspicion.

"Friendship between Shamrock and St Gloriana?" Clare suggested, holding a wine glass with a red shaded beverage. It was probably a cocktail of sorts, swishing delicately in its container

The entire table echoed with shouts of both "Cheers!" and "Kanpai" from all around the table. Assam couldn't help but join in and raised her own glass as well before taking a small sip and tried her best not to gag out.

Her first thought of what beer tasted like was that it was immensely bitter but after a few more sips it seemed more palatable. Overall, she preferred good old fashioned tea, but this wasn't half bad. In front of her, after the toast, Erne had a split-second bitter look in her face that probably wasn't caused by the beer.

Conversation flowed out like their drinks and so they talked about everything for an hour, all except those that needed to be talked about. She nursed her drink carefully while Rosehip chugged hers down, asking for another glass not long thereafter. Speaking of Rosehip, she and Erne immediately clicked and engaged in an intense discussion. Assam would have loved to talk more to someone reasonable like Clare but unfortunately, the girl was already booked by Roselle and by the looks of the bottles on the table the two seemed to be drinking something other than beer, perhaps it was wine? Nonetheless, the two laughed and giggled like two schoolgirls, which they really were, so that comparison doesn't make sense in this context.

With no one else to talk to, Assam just chatted with Shannon and tried to confirm what little information she received about her and the school while giving away as little information about herself and St Gloriana. After a bit of poking, she found out that the girl was indeed in her second year and that she loved to collect autographs. Then the talk suddenly turned to their tanks.

"Initially, our only tank was the Independent, which we found in an abandoned storage facility inside the carrier, along with other auxiliary equipment. The Vickers was leased from the museum onboard and the Valentine, well we brought it using money from a fundraiser we started," Shannon confided, clearly getting more drunk as time went by, loosening her tongue and making her spill potentially valuable information.

From the old school records left behind by previous batches, Assam was able to analyze the seizure of "donated" equipment from Shamrock that was subsequently shipped back to Gloriana. It would appear that they left behind some _materiel_ that was useless to the school, made evident by these being wiped from the inventory.

_That Independent must have been one of them_

But buying a fairly capable tank that could stand up against what the other schools have to offer, now that piqued her interests. Where could they get enough money to buy such good stuff?

So she asked, "What did you sell in the fundraiser? Clovers? Drinks?", in order to get an answer.

Shannon looked up from her drink and puffed out her chest. "Clothes; I sew them personally," she said, proudly and gestured around the table. "See the uniforms they're wearing? All made by me, with some little help from others of course."

"You do? That's amazing!" Assam complimented, fully realising the intricacies and fine details woven into each uniform, every thread tailored with passion and dedication only someone with devotion can possess.

The orange-haired lady spent a while describing every element of the uniform from the buttons used to the distinctive feather plume in the caps that was apparently called a hackle. After a while, Shannon excused herself to go to the bathroom and Rosehip whispered to her ear. "Assam-_senpai_, do I have something in my face?"

Assam looked over and stared at her face, now a bit flushed because of the alcohol. "No, why?"

She noted that Rosehip took a glance at her still soaking wet jacket before replying, "It's just that girl who spilt drinks on me earlier has kept on staring at me for a while now."

With a shrug, Assam jokingly said, "Maybe she's just feeling guilty about having spilt beer on you?"

"Oi, Rosy come here! You said you wanna best an Irish lass, then you have to beat her at her own game, so let's have ourselves a drinking contest. Erne had called from the pub's counter, a long line of shot glasses next to her, with a smiling bartender behind.

The two of them walked the short distance and Rosehip was the one who asked the question that was stuck in her mouth, " So, what are we drinking tonight?"

"Whisky, none of that watered-down muck we had earlier." Erne handed Rosehip a glass and gave her another one of her smiles.

She must have had a worried look for Rosehip tapped her shoulder and reassured her, "Don't worry senpai, I'll drink her under the table!" before sitting down.

Erne burst out laughing, "I'll make you eat your words or rather drink them!" And with a clink of their glasses, the two swallowed down their drinks and slammed down their shot glass on the counter, before reaching for the next one.

The contest started to attract a small crowd of onlookers. One of them was the barmaid that gave them their drinks or in Rosehip's case, spilt it on her. The girl in question saw her through the throng and moved closer, "Hi, you must be Assam-san, I'm Laune, nice to meet you!" she said.

_This was the girl that Rosehip said was looking at her all night long._

"It's a pleasure meeting you as well." Assam shook the girl's hand and as much as she would love to pry into this potentially suspicious person, she didn't want to lose sight of her _kouhai_ who was already six shots in on her drinking match against the Shamrock girl.

"Come now, Erne-san is my friend and she wouldn't allow herself to be beaten by someone else, same can be said by your pink-haired friend, their match would last all night long." Laune cackled. "So, to pass the time, would you like to join me in a game of darts, gunner against gunner?"

As it would seem rude to refuse, Assam nodded and followed the girl to a corner, which was quieter than the rest of the pub. While walking, she registered a mild surprise when she noticed that the rather mechanical clanging against the wooden floorboards was caused by the fact that Laune's right leg was just a prosthetic, something that must have been hidden by her long apron earlier.

She tried her best to avert her eyes from staring too often to avoid offending the lady. In doing so, she noticed that Roselle and Clare had moved to a secluded booth and were entwined like two lovebirds.

"Like the leg?" Laune mused. "Don't worry everybody looks at it all time, no need to be ashamed."

_Did they just let an amputee into their team? Interesting…._

"Why was your leg amputated? Illness?" Assam asked, in curiosity.

The girl frowned and thought for a long time before answering. "No, it was an accident."

Assam decided not to question any further and remained quiet. Shortly thereafter they reached the dartboard and Laune walked the short distance to acquire the projectiles needed and approached her.

"Here we are, here are your darts-" she handed her three used darts-"and since you and your friends are the guests of honour tonight. I'll let you have the first shot."

Assam lined up her shot and carefully let the dart fly, but due to either her having never really played the game before or that she was still dizzy from the boat ride or a combination of both, she managed to mess up her shot and it struck the outer circle of the dartboard.

Her ginger-haired acquaintance laughed. "You have to do better than that to beat me." She threw her dart and it landed an eyelash away from the bullseye.

_She obviously had more practice in this._ Assam thought. But she wasn't the type of girl who'd give up so easily. So she stood up for her turn, and with all the skills of being a gunner slowly coming back to her, she sent the dart flying straight to the dead centre of the board. Bullseye.

"Not bad," Laune nodded, appreciatively.

Over the next hour, they continued taking turns at peppering the dartboard and in the process, she learnt more about her opponent. Laune was a girl who let her emotions make the better of her, getting angry when she missed her targets and quickly becoming arrogant when she hit a bullseye. In terms of her gameplay, she was pretty accurate but rather lacked precision, placing her shots all over the board while Assam's own, on the other hand, bunched up around the middle except for that lone dart from the beginning.

One notable event that raised the hairs on the back of her neck and triggered alarms all over her mind was their conversation over the few remaining darts. Laune had asked an odd question.

"Say, Assam-san, what would you do if you finally found that person who caused you pain and misery from long ago?"

"I would be angry of course."

_"Murderous, even?"_

Assan was so shocked that she misthrew her shot causing it to gaze the outer fringes of the inner circle. But other than that, it was just a normal game and at the end, Laune excused herself to close up the bar or something to that effect and so Assam returned to the counter and met a grisly scene.

Tables were overturned and bottles of alcohol carelessly discarded on the floor, mingling with the girls that had already fallen to the spell of liquor. Fortunately, Rosehip was not among them, however, even more embarrassingly she found the girl on top of a table, bottles in hand and dancing around like an exotic dancer of sorts. Below her was her quasi-Irish opponent, who must have been the first to pass out and was reduced to a drunken stupor.

"Ha! I won!" Rosehip bellowed, using an uncharacteristically crass tone that reminded Assam of the errant Yakuza gangsters from movies.

She had never seen her _kouhai_ act like this in the short period of time since they had met, sure she was crude and unrefined at times but at least she had her manners.

_She probably had too much to drink_

Times like this called upon her better judgement; a test, if you will, of not only her own character but also how she could fulfil the given task of being a _senpai_.

"Rosehip! Get off that table this instant!" Assam reprimanded, trying her best not to place her arms on her hips, so as to appear older, so she used them to tug at Rosehip's skirt as if she needed more persuasion.

"Assan-_senpai, _you… look very… very lovely tonight…" The pink-haired slurred, before pulling one of her hands, bending down and planting a very wet smooch. "Saw that in the movie we watched, always wanted to try it on you, hehehe."

Assam awkwardly pulled back her hand and continued asking Rosehip to step down from the table. "Come on now, don't make this difficult for me."

"Alright... but I won senpai, I won! That ought to show that blabbermouth who's boss," Rosehip declared out as she hopped down from the table, almost going out of balance in the process.

"Oi, I can hear you, you know!" A shout came from below. It would seem that Erne had woken up from her booze aided slumber and was trying her best to stand up, which was a pretty pathetic attempt, and it came as no surprise that she fell down immediately.

Once she had her footing (not without the help of a few nearby students), the ginger pointed at Rosehip and asked, "Was that an insult you just said?"

Rosehip turned around and glared at the girl with a look of arrogance Assam didn't know the girl had possibly brought upon by the alcohol, "And if it was one?"

"Then I'll challenge you to a duel!" Erne shouted back, making heads turn all across the bar as people felt the electrifying spark of an imminent fight.

_Oh, you got to be kidding me! _

Assam moved in to intervene but was stopped by none other than Laune, who held out her back and simply said, "This is a matter of honour, you must not intervene."

This in no way calmed Assam down, not even a little bit and she remained on edge as she watched the duo proceed, with Rosehip declaring her agreement to the challenge.

Erne looked taken aback by this bold display and Assam noticed a flash of fear in the girl's eyes before being overtaken by the hazy, erratic look of a drunkard; as if for a moment the girl's confidence faltered before her bravado came forth once more. "Alright, what weapon would you like for us to use?"

_She must be crazy, both of these two will be hungover as heck tomorrow and having a duel would be just asking for trouble._

"Tanks," Rosehip answered cockily

"I'm sorry?"

"You heard me, tanks!" Rosehip repeated, this time with an irritated look on her face.

"You must be joking... Duelling in tanks? How is that even possible?" Erne asked in exasperation.

"It's an age-old tradition back in our school..." Rosehip mumbled out, before dissolving into a pink mess.

Everyone must have registered the same look of surprise at this statement and Assam watched people buzz about with activity, trying to make sense of their new knowledge. She then felt a burning sensation that someone was gazing at her and turned around to see Rosehip looking straight at her, red-faced as ever, but what caught her attention were the eyes. Although the pink-haired devil had a blushed look on her face, the eyes desperately begged for help, tugging at her heartstrings.

_Quick! Think of something fast, something sensible that a bunch of drunks would believe._

"Yes!" Assam shouted out to be heard, "Dueling with tanks is a tradition as old as time in Gloriana, in fact, it was one of the twelve tasks the next in line commandants has to complete in order to secure her position."

She saw that everyone began nodding and a wave of relief had begun to surge through her, thinking she'd hoodwinked every single one present when she noticed a little girl step out of the crowd. The lass has golden coloured hair, something refreshing and unique compared to the sea of gingers, tied into pigtails using green scrunchies. A pair of red horn-rimmed glasses completed the girl's nerdy look, something Assam personally avoided ever since she learnt how to fix herself up. The geeky image was only cemented by the notepad clutched tightly in one of the blondie's hands with, of course, a pencil on the other.

"Miss, my name's Avoca and if you don't mind but what are the rules of this tankery duel of yours?" The girl's voice was a barely audible whisper and Assam had strained to pick up what was being said, to save the poor child the embarrassment of having to repeat what she said.

_Ah, bugger someone just had to ask... Think Assam think, you read up on all things before you left, you read this before and you just have to remember it _

Assam quickly racked her brains, her thoughts colliding with each other, creating a stampede that left her mind in a mush. The lack of sleep, the lingering seasickness from earlier, coupled with that glass of beer earlier only made matters worse, but she knew it was a must that she didn't leave her kouhai hanging, "The rules are pretty simple, just like in a regular duel, a location and a time will be selected, with each side bringing a tank of their own. I believe the other rules could be discussed on the spot."

Avoca (or was it Avocado?) looked at her with gratefulness and admiration before the girl in question busied herself in attending to her notepad and blending back into the crowd, going off to God knows where. With the additional rules provided, the two duelers had agreed to meet at 10 o'clock tomorrow on a wide field just behind the school complex.

Not a minute passed after the agreement before a smaller, orange-haired girl, who Assam recognized as the fiddle player from earlier, came and picked up Erne, whom Assam had correctly assumed was the violinist's older sister.

"Ah, I'm terribly sorry for the attitude of my sister, she's usually not like this. By the way, Annalee's the name," the fiddle player said, extending the hand not wrapped around Erne as she propped up her pitiably drunken sister, with the help of Laune, who had now shed her barmaid apron, revealing her prosthetic for all to see.

_Shannon...Clare... Erne... Laune... Avocado now Annalee, either they picked the most Irish-sounding names possible or there is a pattern that I just fail to see. Definitely worth looking into later._

Assam shook the musician's callused hand and introduced herself as well, making sure to keep an eye out for Rosehip, who by now had settled on a stool and was beginning to doze off. Laune and Erne's younger sister took their leave as they propped up poor Erne between them, asking for other people to open the pub door for them.

One by one, Shamrock students began to leave and she checked her watch to see what time was and realised that it was already ten minutes past midnight and so she set it upon herself to gather up the crew, especially they would all have an early start tomorrow. Roselle was unsurprisingly still with Clare. Her head was on the brunette's lap and she jumped like a gazelle when she saw Assam approaching. Rosemallow was quicker to be found as she was still sitting in her chair and was busy chatting with a girl that looked eerily similar to Darjeeling in terms of looks, minus the blonde hair but with a beautiful rose hair clip.

The stack of plates on their otherwise clean table suggested that the two had done nothing but eat the dishes _Hare's Head_ had to offer and drink non-alcoholic beverages, the latter being a blessing since Assam didn't need to deal with any more drunks.

The Darjeeling-look-alike stood to attention when she saw their party approaching and bowed down in front of them, "Hi, I'm Inny, nice to meet the both of you," she said, addressing both her and Roselle, then turned to face her only. "And you must be Assam?"

"Yup and it seems the two of you are getting along quite well," Assam responded.

Inny smiled and took a scoop of bar nuts. "Ever heard of this quotation? A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world."

_Darjeeling would love to meet this lady, she even has the quotations down pat!_

As luck would have it, Assam spent some of her time perusing quotation books as she might not always be the victim of her fellow blonde's quotation addiction; it never hurts to be prepared.

"Leo Buscaglia, I assume?"

Inny looked at her, half in astonishment and the half that spoke thankfulness. "Correct! I suppose you need help with carrying your friend?"

"How did you know?" Assam asked.

"Rosemallow-san and I were watching when the commotion began. We even made bets on who would win tomorrow," The Darjeeling-look alike replied, with a hint of a wink and surprisingly, one of Darjeeling's mischievous smiles.

And with the four of them, (Clare had gone ahead to start up the car), the arduous task of lifting Rosehip was accomplished much more rapidly and with less back pain. It was only when they were all strapped in that she realized that they left Rosehip's jacket and she excused herself to retrieve it.

Now with a still pungent-smelling jacket draped over her shoulder, Assam noticed a glint of porcelain and what looked like shards behind a small patch of bush. With the help of a handy penlight she always carried in her purse, she decided to investigate and that was when it hit her.

_It was the teacup they had given earlier._

* * *

**Author's Notes: **Surprised you haven't waited months for another update? Well, I'm trying a different approach that (I hope) would shorten the time between each update, without (Again, I hope) sacrificing quality.

One last thing to note, I'm thinking of adding signs before each chapter to indicate who's the protagonist of that chapter, so stay tuned for that.

Once more, thank you to the usual folk that helped in the writing of this chapter and to you my readers, who persistently keep reading this stuff, thank you to you as well.

That's all for now and as always, leave a like, subscribe and hit tha- Wait, wrong script, okay, once again. That's all for now and as always fav, follow and leave a review, till next time!

**PS: (08/28/20) **Added an important scene and also descriptions for the other tanks as well**, **along with fleshing out other characters as well, hope you enjoy!


	7. Chapter 6: End of the Day

**AN: **I apologize for the extra-long delay, had to edit _all _the previous chapters, so I highly recommend going over the story again, but rereading the previous chapter would be enough for now. See you at the end of this chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 6  
****End of the Day**

**Aboard HMS Unicorn  
****Shamrock Girls High School  
25th of April  
****12:37 AM**

_The weariest nights, the longest of days, sooner or later must come to an end._

So Assam thought as she wiped away tears from her eyes after letting out a yawn. The rigours of the day's voyage had started to weigh down on her and the vestige of consciousness had slowly started to leave her, but there was one final task for the day.

They had taken the Rolls-Royce to the hotel, the so-called Faultry Tower, which dwarfed the surrounding structures, but since they couldn't exactly drive up the five-story building, she, along with Rosemallow, had carried Rosehip to their accommodation while the rest busied themselves with the luggage. It was, however, easier said than done, as the hotel booked by their host had a conveniently broken elevator, and so they were forced to half carry, half drag the passed-out redhead, who only seemed to get heavier the higher they got, up to the top.

With both of them having one of Rosehip's arms over their shoulders, the three of them engaged in an awkward six-legged race up the stairs. Their faces were so close, Assam could smell the stench of alcohol coming from her kouhai's mouth. She could also hear what the girl was trying to mumble out in her semi-conscious state.

_Not that it made much sense. _

Trying her best to understand all the nonsense spewing forth from Rosehip's mouth, she could make out that the girl was trying to sing the song from _Titanic_, the film they had watched yesterday, or rather the day before yesterday as she realized it was long past midnight or so her watch said.

"Evewie….naught in moy dweams…" the redhead slurred before falling asleep again in their arms.

Assam snickered and took a glance at Rosemallow near her, who also smiled and rolled her eyes. It was funny considering St Gloriana, along with Saunders, was known for offering top of the line English classes but in practice, most students still had difficulty in using them, even she found it hard to form long coherent sentences. Earl Grey-senpai however, had learnt how to speak the language like a native and could even read the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare without suffering a stroke.

When they finally reached the top floor, _(Why do luxury suites have to be at the very top?)_ Rosemallow went ahead and took out the room key to unlock the door. For a while, only Assam supported Rosehip and their cheeks momentarily touched one another. Normally, she wouldn't mind such skinship but Rosehip being drunk was such a turn-off.

While waiting, she noticed the hotel's fire evacuation plan tacked up on the wall. With the minute or two Rosemallow took to open the door, Assam was able to memorize the location of some areas their accommodation had to offer, like the dining area on the first floor and the rooftop terrace.

Rosemallow finally managed to get the door open and returned to help her with Rosehip again. With anticipation, the door swung open to reveal a luxurious hotel room, with two Queen-size beds (the school tried booking a room with four beds, but this was the only one available, Clare explained) and even a flat-screen TV to boot. Immediately beside the entrance was a walk-in closet and in front of that was another door, which, she assumed, led to the bathroom. The room also had a large window that would have given them a good view of the carrier had it not been for the lateness of the hour.

They deposited Rosehip on one of the beds, making sure to position her on her side to avoid complications of having to sleep facing up, and used some of the pillows to make sure she wouldn't roll out of the bed and onto the floor.

The Shamrock girls placed their luggage at the foot of the beds and went on their way. Clare said that she would pick them up at 9 o'clock in the morning of the following day sharp and closed the door behind her, but not before giving a farewell hug to Roselle.

The three of them took care of the luggage, allocating a specific spot for each one in the closet and began changing out of their uniform into more comfortable nightwear.

Assam entered the bathroom, making sure to lock the door behind her. The washroom was fairly spacious, with a shower on the left, the toilet near it, and a small rectangular bathtub on the right. The sink was in the middle and on the countertop around it, she placed the clothes she was going to change into.

From outside, Assam could hear the two that were still conscious having some sort of argument and from the faint bits she could hear, she deduced that Roselle had jumped onto the bed wearing her leather boots and Rosemallow was having none of her excuses.

With a giggle, Assam began her nightly routine by taking off the black ribbon she tied her hair with and let her long blonde locks fall down. She combed it till she was satisfied that it was silky smooth and began to change into her nightdress, before going back into the room.

To her surprise, Rosemallow and Roselle were having a full-fledged pillow fight, both of them on the carpet using pillows to attack the other and they only stopped when they saw her emerge from the bathroom.

The two hastily stood up and dusted their pyjamas. Rosemallow wore an ashamed look on her face and avoided looking at Assam's eyes. Roselle, on the other hand, had the look of pure unadulterated smug and what looked like a smirk.

"So, who's going to be sleeping next to Rosehip?" Assam asked, to break the tension in the room.

The two shared a sinister look and Roselle finally spoke up. "What if we draw lots?"

And with that, Rosemallow used a pen to quickly jot down something on the hotel stationery, which she ripped into three small stripes and stuffed it into her fist, with the ends sticking out, "Whoever picks the one with an X in it, gets to bed with sleepyhead over here!" she said, before extending her closed fist, so they could all pick one.

With nothing to lose, Assam quickly picked the middle one and gave it a tug. She knew it from the moment she had laid a finger on the slip of paper that it was the one and she wasn't surprised to see the hastily scribbled X on the other end of the stationery.

"I got it," she simply said, showing others her draw.

"Alright, good luck with that and good night!" Roselle let out, quickly running to the switch to turn off the lights. In the split second of time before darkness came in, Assam noticed that Rosemallow had collected her teammate's slip and torn both it and hers to shreds.

She would have asked further but her exhausted body prodded her to sleep and as such she slipped into the sheets, carefully as to not disturb her already snoring kouhai.

Assam prepared herself for sleep, using a method she learned online, which enabled her to doze off in two minutes. But, alas, Fate just decided tonight was the perfect time to visit her poor bedmate again.

"Please...Have mercy... Let me go, LET ME GO!" Rosehip was talking in her sleep again, which Assam would have normally shrugged off but the pleas for mercy, accompanied by sobs and cries in the dark, were too much for her to just ignore.

Assam found herself fumbling for the lamp switch on the nightstand in between the two beds. When she found it, she turned on the light and was temporarily blinded by the glow of the lamp. When her eyes gradually adjusted to the sudden change of light, she saw Rosehip was lying in a pool of sweat, twisting and turning, muttering the same words over and over again.

"Everything alright?" Rosemallow asked, stifling a yawn, her orange coloured hair in disarray; a change from her usual twin-tails.

"It's Rosehip, she's talking in her sleep, what should we do?" Assam said, noting the panic in her own voice, her weariness momentarily forgotten.

"Ah bollocks, here we go again." Roselle chipped in, removing the sheets from her head as she sat up straight.

"Just wait for a few minutes and it will be over," Rosemallow calmly said, getting out of bed and walking over to the hospitality tray, where she made herself, from what Assam could smell, some tea.

"Shouldn't we try waking her up?" Assam asked as Rosemallow handed her a steaming cup of tea, perhaps something to warm her insides up.

"Nope, we found out early on that she gets a bit violent when you wake her up. Drink your tea up before it gets cold," The ginger said as she opened another packet of tea, this one probably for herself.

"It's completely normal, you'll get used to it," Roselle added. Assam found herself somewhat irritated by the casual way the brunette delivered the reply. Roselle didn't notice, however, and instead just turned to her crewmate, who was now dunking biscuits into her tea, and asked, "Ey, what about mine?"

"Make it yourself like a good chap, you muppet," Rosemallow fired back, kickstarting the snarky banter in-between the two, something that she really needed to wrap her head around. How can an insult-filled exchange be a mark of true friendship?

While the two were throwing jabs at each other, wielding a wide arsenal of flowery taunts, Assam took the time to comprehend the last thing Roselle had said. They certainly did know Rosehip more personally than she could ever hope, but that didn't change the fact that Rosehip could be in danger.

"What on earth do you mean? Have you tried asking her what's wrong?" she found herself saying, bringing the two to a standstill.

The brunette simply shrugged, "She wouldn't bulge, maybe you can have a try in the future?" In the end, the duo had just decided to share, with Roselle finishing the lukewarm tea. The move ushered peace between the two, returning to their bed and leaving Assam to deal with the mess.

Sooner than later, the mutterings did stop, as Rosemallow foretold, and Rosehip returned to a snoring mess. With a sigh, Assam laid down next to her and turned off the lamp, plunging the room back into the darkness.

The comfort of her bed and the exhaustion of the day was not enough to put her to sleep, however. Thoughts of Rosehip, or perhaps Rosehip herself raced through her mind, giving off the sensation that her head was slowly being perforated with an armour-piercing shell and for some reason, all her attempts at calming herself only added more fuel to the flames. She lay there for what felt like hours, desperately grasping for the reason as to why Rosehip experienced nightmares.

_Did she experience trauma in her youth?_

_Does she have repressed childhood memories?_

_Wait, could it be that that question earlier meant more than what meets the eye?_

Assam hadn't really seen anything else that would denote that their life would be in danger, but that question really sent a tingling sensation up the hairs of her neck. She twisted and turned in the bed, using the pillows as earmuffs to muffled out the obnoxious snoring of her drunk kouhai.

With her sanity slowly draining and sleep still far away along with having nothing better to do, Assam left the bed once more. From her purse, she took the same stainless steel box Rosehip had picked up from the deck of the ship and silently crept out of the room, locking the door behind her. If her memory served her correctly, at the end of this corridor, there should be stairs straight to the rooftop terrace, the perfect place to test her newly received Welrod.

Inside the steel box she had received from Earl Grey-senpai was a small manual pertaining to the gun and Assam, who hadn't as much held a gun in her life before, poured over the pages on the desk of her room back home, aided only by the sharp light of a lamp.

She also went online, reading up articles and she even remembered watching a video of some man with a wacky hairstyle and an equally bonkers beard explaining the mechanics of the firearm in such a way that even a schoolgirl like her could understand. However, this would be the first time she would actually fire the gun.

Assam came across a glass sliding door and slipped it open, creating no noise as she went. The entire rooftop was bathed in moonlight, giving light to sets of stylish patio tables, the chairs tucked away and she looked around first to make sure that there was no one else here but her. She wasn't expecting the late-night breeze to be that cold and she flinched as the wind sent chills up her exposed legs, unshielded by her nightgown.

Regretting that she hadn't worn better-suited clothing, Assam placed the box on one of the tables and took out the gun. With one of the six-round magazines provided, she loaded the weapon and held it against the moonlight. It looked more like a pipe than a weapon but that was probably a prerequisite for usage in covert operations. The gun was somewhat heavier than she thought at first but now she had become accustomed to its properties. That, however, could very much change once she fired it.

"Alright, here goes nothing." Assam took aim at one of the spinning pinwheels on the railing, standing a good metre or two away from her selected targets. Using the fluorescent painted sights as a guide, she simultaneously squeezed the safety behind the magazine and the weird bent-nail shaped trigger to fire the weapon, producing a surprisingly quiet sound, as opposed to the loud report of the cannon she operated in the Churchill.

Just like her first dart throw, the bullet went wild, missing the target in front of her. She cycled the weapon by turning the knob at the end, pulling the bolt to eject the spent cartridge, before pushing the bolt and turning the bolt once again. Assam fired again, this time with a much more satisfactory result as a bullet clipped the blade of the pinwheel.

She finished off the magazine by shooting off other pinwheels, always turning the knob and pulling sharply to the rear, clearing the weapon of the used round. Assam did not want to use up another mag because ammunition was limited and it also required her to replace the rubber wipes, which made the gun quiet in the first place. She also didn't bother with disassembling the gun, to make it easier to use in life or death situations, stuffing it inside the box once again.

All of a sudden, Assam heard her name being called out. Fear crept up to her mind as she decided on what to do next. Should she try to hide? But there was nowhere that could conceal her for a long period of time. Maybe she could try using the weapon on whoever is approaching? No, that would be irresponsible.

"Assam!" The speaker repeated themselves. Louder. Closer.

Deciding that shooting someone wasn't the best course of action, Assam tossed the case containing the pistol into the bushes, hoping to retrieve it after she had dealt with this newcomer.

"Y-yeah?" Assam answered back. Somewhere in the dark, the glass door opened and closed. Footsteps rang across the patio and a figure stepped into the moonlight. Fortunately, it was only Rosemallow, who let out a huge sigh of relief at seeing her.

Phew, that was a close one

"Oh thank Gloriana! I thought I heard a scuffle and didn't think much of it until I went to the bathroom and I saw that you weren't in bed." Rosemallow said, looking out of place in her pyjamas. "Why did you go up here by yourself?"

"Needed some fresh air, plus the night sky is amazing," Assam replied, looking up at the stars above as if to make her point, hoping that the glint of the case or the remains of the pinwheels wouldn't arouse suspicion.

The redhead seemed not to notice any of these things thankfully and just walked next to her, taking a look at the grounds below, "I took a glance of the garden earlier and even from here, it looks quite glamorous, would you like to take a stroll with me in it?"

"Alright, but the stairs, we have to take those to get back," Assam, said in exasperation, not wanting to climb five sets of stairs again.

"The journey should be easier now since we don't have a dead weight with us," Rosemallow replied, her face starting to show the early signs of annoyance.

Assam tried her best to not take a glance at the box, deciding whether it was worth the trouble or not.

Rosemallow made the choice for her, however, and pulled her hand and dragged her along, saying, "Come now, we don't have all night."

The two of them made their way down the stairs, their fluffy hotel-provided slippers taking them down one step at a time. They walked past the lounge room and the reception booth, where a few of the sleepy staff tried their best to make it through the graveyard shift and couldn't care less about two guests having a midnight stroll.

The garden here was smaller than that back home, but what it lacked in size, it made up with diversity. Bushes of different varieties were planted on the large stone urns that lined the garden path at set intervals, providing a neat border for the flower beds.

An assortment of flowers was always a welcome sight, even though the petals that blossomed during the day were tucked in for the night, as if the flowers themselves were asleep.

"So, what do you think about Rosehip's sleeping habit?" Rosemallow asked her, snapping Assam back from her melancholy.

"A bit unnerving. You think she experienced something traumatic in her youth?" Assam replied, a bit distracted by the redhead, who was snapping off overhanging twigs and breaking them into pieces, before scattering them on the garden path.

"Your guess is just as good as mine, I just hope that you being her-" Rosemallow looked as if she was about to say something but stopped and did a double-take- "senpai would have more success than us."

"On the contrary, she could keep her secret harder."

"Nah, Rosehip cares a lot about you."

Silence fell onto the two of them as they continued their walk, going in no particular direction. Much to Assam's surprise, on their path, was what appeared to be the only cherry blossom in the garden. And like its brethren back in the mainland, this one had begun its seasonal bloom.

Rosemallow stretched out her hand to catch some of the falling leaves. "Tell me, do you happen to have siblings?" she asked.

Assam felt Rosemallow looking straight at her, making her feel a bit uneasy, "No, only child," she in turn replied.

"Ah, lucky you," Here, Rosemallow had wistfulness etched in her face as she turned her attention to the sakura leaves descending to the ground, but Assam knew that her mind was really far off. "My sister and I, have never really been on good terms, that's why I consider them my family. And I would like to have a word with anyone who tries to hurt them. Which makes me worry about Roselle..."

"What about her?" she asked, curious as to what the girl in question did to make her "sister" worry.

"She's head over heels over someone again and that someone just happens to be, yet again, someone she just met," Rosemallow replied, concern now in her face.

That hit too close to home, Assam thought. _Guess if she wants to pursue her love with Rosehip, she has to court every single of her friends as well,_ "Shouldn't you let her be with her own love life?", was the only thing she could say.

"I sound controlling, don't I? But what if she gets burned again? Who will pick up the broken pieces for the second time? For Gloriana's sake, the last time it happened she locked herself in her room for three days. Three days! She even stopped attending classes, until we slapped some sense into her and even then, she was gloomy for about a month."

A hush once again fell upon then, perhaps Rosemallow was just giving her some much needed time to let the information sink in. For a while, the only sound Assam could hear was that of the cicadas, whose nightly songs foretold the beginning of summer. Assam was about to suggest going back when she felt Rosemallow grasp her arm and pulled the both of them off the garden path, dashing behind a rhododendron bush.

"What on earth do you think you're doing?!" She found herself asking, half in annoyance and half confusion, worried that her silk dress might snag and tear on the branches.

"Hush now! Someone's coming," Rosemallow replied, keeping both of their heads, forcing Assam to crouch both to the ground.

She strained her ears and indeed, someone else was having a late-night stroll.

"-knew all those years of drama club back in elementary was worth it!"

"Yup, we played them like a damn fiddle! I can't wait for that foolish drunkard to stumble to the grounds tomorrow, puking her guts out!" The two newcomers shared a laugh, the source of the voices indiscernible, unless Assam hazarded a peek, which would blow their cover.

_Drunkard… They're not talking about Rosehip, are they?_

"You sure that's her?" the other asked her companion.

"Yeah," the reply came.

In the corner of her eye, Assam saw a small bird land on a nearby hedge. She would have brushed it off had not the bird started chirping loudly, bringing unwanted attention with it.

"Positi- what's that noise?" one of the voices asked.

Both she and Rosemallow froze. If they let the bird continue it would betray their position and they could be discovered.

"Shut that bloody bird up or we'll get caught!" Rosemallow whispered to her, pushing something rough into her hand. In the near darkness, Assam was able to see a pebble into her hand, which her companion must have picked off the ground.

"You can't expect me to kill a bird!"

"It's either bird or us. Look, you don't even have to hit it to shoo it away, as long as it lands within close proximity."

With the sound of footsteps coming closer, Assam made do with what little light she had to aim and threw the little projectile. The pebble flew across the air, before striking the bush the bird was on, sending it flying off to the night.

"Superb shot!" Rosemallow cheered her on, readjusting her stance to avoid getting dirt on her slippers.

With the bird's traitorous song over, Assam was able to focus on eavesdropping again, managing to catch the tail end of the conversation.

"-yes, I'm sure she's the one who made me lose my leg."

"Fear nought, fate has given us the opportunity to serve out vengeance on the fool who cost you your leg."

_Leg….. Wait a minute!_

Assam listened more carefully and she could hear a consistent mechanical tap… something she had only heard earlier this evening. One of the souls out there was Laune!

She tapped the shoulder of Rosemallow and whispered, "Ey, I think Laune's one of the people out there."

"Gloriana almighty! I think you're right! How did she lose her leg?"

"She told me it was in an accident, you think Rosehip is somehow involved?"

Rosemallow shook her head, "Rosehip may be the devil incarnate when it comes to all things speedy, but she'd never hurt anyone, not even by accident."

Before Assam could reply, the two persons they were listening on began to talk again and she kept her mouth shut.

"Is the package in place?"

"Aye, it's in the safehouse waiting to be opened."

"Colour me impressed, I didn't think they would deliver,"

"But how would we do it though? Poisoning her drink?"

She and Rosemallow shared a look of horror as the two of them realized the gravity of the conversation they were overhearing, but before they could hear more, Laune and her companion walked out of earshot.

"That's it, I have to see who the other one is," Rosemallow said out and lifted her head slightly above the shrubbery.

"What do you see?" Assam asked her, anxious that two heads poking out of a bush would arouse more suspicion than a single one.

"They're walking away, but I see a redhead next to Laune," Rosemallow simply replied.

"That doesn't narrow it down one bit, redheads are dime a dozen here," Assam replied. If the proportions in a bar with just over two dozen people were to be believed, she shuddered at the thought of how many are there in the entire school.

"She's a bit tall," Rosemallow, who was ironically a redhead herself, added.

"Is it Clare?" Assam thought about the girl's warning and how ironic would it be if she should be the one who they had to be wary about.

Rosemallow shot this down, "No, the hair colour is different, fiery red, and oh, she's wearing a party hat."

"It's Erne then-" she asked, remembering the expressions made by the celebrant and that teacup…. "-does she look drunk or anything?" Assam prodded on, getting impatient from all the hiding,

"Not quite, the coast is clear, by the way. You can stand up now."

"But that's impossible, the last time we saw her, she was drunk as a lord, to the point that her sister and Laune had to carry her out. Unless she was acting…." Assam stood up and checked if her dress was dirtied or ripped, delighted to find neither.

"Might be, let's get the hell out of here and head back. Rosehip still has a duel to win tomorrow," Rosemallow laughed, before taking the lead on the return leg, making sure to check the corners lest they bumped into the other pair again.

The thought that crossed her mind, which she took with her to bed, probably best described the night that had just taken place.

_Words come easily in the dark, daylight might tell another tale._

* * *

**Author's Note: **It's been a while, am I right? Thought I would have more free time during the lockdown but it was quite the opposite since I procrastinated more and until life managed to catch up to me. I can't make any promises when the next update will be, because the last time I did, I failed to fulfil it by a longshot. Anyways, that's enough drama from me. As always, special thanks to the same lot, Sharky, Galilool, Rihno, Shrimpy, Monty and many others I have forgotten. Until next time, cheerio!


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